The Chaos of the Kinder Class
by la z boy
Summary: After the mishaps at the Mini Ministry, Hermione is called upon to rectify her "mistakes" by becoming a temporary teacher for a Wizarding kindergarten class. The only problem? This class has some...familiar faces. Sequel to "The Mishaps of the Mini Ministry" by Blackwolf-20, who is also co-author for this.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, so to start off, this story is a collaboration between myself and Blackwolf-20. It also serves as a sequel to Blackwolf's "The Mishaps of the Mini Ministry." Neither of these stories are particularly complicated, but it would still do you good to read "Mishaps" if you haven't already. It would give you a clearer sense of the background of this story, especially seeing as how I make references to it here and there in this chapter.**

**Now, onto my next note. Any of you familiar with some of my work know that I'm a big fan of the prank story when it comes to the comedy genre. And I think it's safe to say that "The Chaos of the Kinder Class" is the biggest, most ambitious prank story I've worked on yet. I feel I must compliment my amazing co-author, Blackwolf, for some of this. Because the stuff we've come up with is going to be absolutely insane.**

**Trust me, the M rating will come into play later.**

**I warn you now: Blackwolf and I just decided to go all-out with these pranks. They may start simple enough, but they'll keep getting bigger and more diabolical, maybe even cruel. So, we ask that as you read, please keep in mind that while these pranks progressively get worse, our intention is nothing more than just giving this story the biggest comedic punch we can. These kids are kindergarteners, so a certain level of immaturity IS to be expected.**

**We DON'T hate Hermione. Okay, that's on the record.**

**So, Blackwolf-20 and I proudly present "The Chaos of the Kinder Class."**

* * *

**Chapter 1**

Day One: Commence the Chaos

Hermione was still surprised that she had consented to this agreement, given past events earlier in the summer. Considering said events, specifically those mishaps of the Mini Ministry day care, such a thing like temporarily becoming a teacher for a Wizarding kindergarten class would seem like a bad idea.

Indeed, Hermione was mentally kicking herself for saying yes as she sat in the Principal's Office, waiting for her meeting to begin. Then again, from the tone of voice of the Ministry official who had contacted her about the job over the weekend, Hermione had gotten the impression that if she had said no, she'd probably have been put in Azkaban until Hogwarts was back in session four weeks from now. Apparently, the Ministry of Magic took the education of young witches and wizards a bit more seriously than she initially thought.

This "grade school" of sorts for young witches and wizards was a newly created establishment. Apparently, the new Minister, Rufus Scrimgeour, had deemed it necessary for magical kids in the six to ten age range to receive at least a basic understanding of magic before entering Hogwarts. Admittedly, Hermione thought that was a good idea, but given her most recent experience with young kids, did _she _really have to be involved in it?

She got her answer a few minutes later.

By then, the Principal, Mrs. Fogg had entered the office and took the seat at her desk. She was accompanied by another, older woman; one whom Hermione recognized: Ms. Stats, the woman who had helped integrate Hermione into the Mini Ministry earlier that summer. Hermione was surprised, yet curious, that she was here, too.

"Thank you for coming in this morning, Ms. Granger," said Mrs. Fogg, who spoke in a voice that sounded like a middle ground between Professor McGonagall and Hermione herself. "No doubt you're wondering why you're here."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Well, to be perfectly honest," continued Mrs. Fogg, "we require your services here. As a temporary teacher."

Hermione feared this had been coming. She shifted nervously in her seat and cleared her throat before answering. "Ah … excuse me, Mrs. Fogg, but do you mind if I ask _why_?"

"I understand your hesitation," Mrs. Fogg nodded, "given your recent … _entanglement _with children. In fact, that's part of the reason why we want you, apart from our officially designated teacher being on three weeks of bedrest in St. Mungo's after an unfortunate run-in with Devil's Snare."

Hermione looked, and was, puzzled. "I'm sorry?"

It was then that Ms. Stats stepped forward, producing a copy of the Daily Prophet from her bag. When the paper was plopped down onto Mrs. Fogg's desk, Hermione could see that it was a copy of the issue which had come out the day after she'd quit at the Mini Ministry. The main picture showed her in front of the day care house, completely naked, getting covered in blue paint that had glitter mixed into it. Hermione gazed down at her feet in shame and embarrassment. She recalled the letters she'd gotten shortly after from Harry and Ron expressing their … _concern._

"Your brief stint at the Mini Ministry was obviously ill-received," explained Ms. Stats in a stern voice. "Not only did it cast our whole magical education and children care system in a bad light, it also created doubt about the Ministry's ability to recruit adequate care-givers and teachers."

Hermione quickly caught on to the implication. "So you wanted me back, this time teaching a kindergarten class, to prove that the Ministry _is _capable of doing that."

"I'm aware that last time, you were assured the children would be well-behaved," said Mrs. Fogg as she leaned forward, giving Ms. Stats a questionable look, which Ms. Stats responded to in kind by giving Mrs. Fogg an icy stare. "But this time, you can put more stock into such a statement."

Before Hermione could reply, Ms. Stats pulled out something else from her bag: a single piece of parchment, which she deposited on top of the Daily Prophet. "Since this three-week job begins today," the old woman said, "time is of the essence. We have no other candidates in mind for the job, and the class can't spend their first day of school without a teacher. Once you sign this contract and set foot in the classroom in the capacity of a teacher, there is absolutely no backing out."

Hermione had to ask the obvious question: "And, what if I say no?"

Ms. Stats huffed, reaffirming to Hermione the fact that she resembled Umbridge. "If you say _no, _then the contract states that you must pay a fine to the Ministry and the parents of the children who were previously in your care. And I assure you, Ms. Granger, it's considerably higher than the price of school books."

So, the Ministry was blackmailing her, in a way. Lovely.

A quill appeared in Hermione's hand. But she didn't immediately sign. Through her head ran the bad memories of the Mini Ministry. From having beetles put in her hair, to getting spun in the air like a Spinning Top and finally to having her bare butt paddled, she was in no hurry to be alone with kids again. However, if she could fix her public image after that whole fiasco, then that was more important.

"Yes, consider it a favor." It seemed Ms. Stats was a skilled Legilimens.

So, Hermione sighed and signed her name on the contract. It vanished into thin air immediately after.

There was no turning back now.

From there, everything happened so fast. Ms. Stats left their company and Mrs. Fogg navigated Hermione out of the office and through a sea of fresh-faced students until they reached the door of Hermione's assigned classroom. The room took a while to reach, as it seemed to be a bit more far-removed from the majority of other classrooms.

"Here is your room," said Mrs. Fogg. She peeked in through the window. "Every room is soundproof, to prevent the noises of other classes being a distraction and vice versa. Anyway, the children are all in there, waiting for you." She handed Hermione a folder. "Here is the class roster, along with a basic list of activities. Magic should only be used if the lesson dictates it. It's 8:29 now, the day begins in one minute. So, just go in, introduce yourself, take attendance and get the day going. I'm confident you'll do well."

And with that, Mrs. Fogg went back the way they came, leaving Hermione alone in the hallway, gathering herself.

"Relax," she said out loud. "This isn't the Mini Ministry. Just assert yourself, and you'll do fine."

Hermione breathed in and out once and grabbed the doorknob. But before she entered, she took a moment to gaze through the door and observe the layout of the classroom.

The group of seven children sat on a multicolored rug, on which was the alphabet, in front of the blackboard. Hermione's desk sat directly to the left of the blackboard. On the left wall were mini-closets which were connected until they stopped, where the cubby holes were. The right side of the room was divided into two sections: the first being a play area with shelves of toys and other fun items, some of which were whirring and even making bubbles. Hermione darkly recalled a situation with green bubbles all those weeks ago.

The second half of the right side had an assortment of small tables meant for various work-fueled activities, as well as snack time. The room's windows were behind them. Speaking of food, though, there was another area in the back of the room that seemed to function as a mini-kitchen. There was a wall-length counter, complete with cabinets, sink and paper towel roll.

To the right of _that _was an open door, which provided access to a bathroom.

All in all, every necessity was pretty much at arm's length.

Hermione cleared her throat, straightened out her pink top that went with her jeans, and finally stepped over the threshold.

"Good morning, class!" Hermione greeted in a bright tone.

She made her way to the blackboard, not facing the children yet. "My name is Hermione Granger, and I'll be your teacher until your previous instructor returns in a few weeks. To make things easy for you, you can just call me Hermione. Now, then." She opened the folder and found the attendance sheet. "When I call your name, please say "Here. Tony Jenkins!"

Hermione glanced up as a black-haired boy with a toothy grin cried "Here!"

"Alice Langstrom!"

She was a brown-haired girl with bright blue eyes.

"Bruno Peckham!"

"Here!" shouted a black boy who had a wild, energetic look about him.

Just before Hermione could call out the next name, she felt her stomach drop. The next name, Lori Becker, was very familiar, as were the six names following it: Miles Jinks, Barrin Jones, Torics Melver, Aggy Neimer, Sammy Stephens and Benjamin Thomas.

In other words, they were the mini Ministry kids. As Hermione lowered the folder to get her first look at them in weeks, she could confirm that they all were indeed "Here."

_The principal forgot to mention THEY were in this class! _Hermione thought angrily. Of course, it was too late to leave now. She rubbed her eyes and groaned.

All of the kids in question were currently staring at Hermione in evil anticipation. Then, each of them traded amused looks.

These looks clearly said: this is too good to be true!

"Time to play!" Aggy whispered to Lori, while giggling madly.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Hermione finished rubbing her eyes, desperation fully taking over her mind. How – _why –_ had she somehow found herself stuck alone with the same seven brats _twice _over the course of the same summer? Why was this happening to _her_? She looked back up at the class.

"Would you all, um … excuse me for a minute?"

Hermione quickly placed the folder on her desk and strode back over to the main door, the possibility of just bolting for her life swimming around in her head. But the moment her right palm made contact with the knob, common sense kicked back in, and it was with a vengeance.

What was she thinking? Was she _seriously _about to outright abandon her promise and not only thus force herself into paying an expensive fine, but also solidify her status in the magical community as a person whom kids could easily walk over?

She didn't think so.

Hermione had been handed a second shot here, and she'd be damned if she merely took the cowards' way out. Plus, she seriously doubted that the "Sinister Seven" could pull pranks on her like they did at the Mini Ministry and have it go unnoticed by any of the staff or other students. Or could they? Just how soundproof _were _these rooms?

The dilemma was enough to make Hermione bang her head, gently, against the door, cursing her desire to maintain perfection in her life with each impact.

"Hermione?" The voice belonged to Alice, one of the "pure ones", and it prompted Hermione to stop banging her head and turn it to note the concern on said little girl's face. "Are you alright?"

Hermione sighed and nodded, putting forth a tremendous amount of effort to give a friendly smile. "Yes, Alice. I'm fine. But it's very kind of you to ask, thank you."

She went back over to her desk, keeping an eagle eye on her "acquaintances" as she did. Oh, she wasn't buying the whole innocent act they were currently putting on, not for a second.

Once back at her desk, Hermione reclaimed the folder and faced the kids, consulting the piece of paper that contained everything they were meant to do today. Being that this was a kindergarten class, any block of time that was scheduled for educational purposes or productive recreation was short, not to mention sparse. The rest of the time, the lesson plan implied that it was entirely up to Hermione what the class did.

"Okay, it says here that we're starting today with you guys drawing self-portraits. So, I would like -"

Hermione was cut off because right at that moment, many small and wet feelings erupted all over her face, almost like pimples that had suddenly popped up out of nowhere.

Curious, yet suspicious, Hermione gazed up from the lesson plan, directly to the Mini Ministry kids. All of whom were wearing smiles that clearly identified them as the culprits behind whatever had just happened. Not that there was any doubt in Hermione's mind about it.

But the straws clutched in each of their hands confirmed it even further.

Hermione scanned the room for a mirror or some reflective surface, found a small and circular mirror on her desk, and picked it up to inspect the damage.

The comparison to pimples was pretty close to the truth, because dotted randomly around Hermione's face were tiny gray dots, each of them feeling moist. _Spitballs, _she said to herself. Certainly _not _the introductory prank Hermione had been expecting, but she'd gladly take it over the one they had started with last time.

Using her sleeve to wipe the miniature wads from her face, Hermione leaned the folder against the blackboard, with the chalk tray serving as its holder, and stepped through Tony, Alice and Bruno, all of whom looked at their teacher in awe, torn between laughing or not.

"Hand them over," Hermione said sternly, extending out her hand once in front of the spitball shooters. "_Now!"_

The kids complied, much to Hermione's surprise.

"Would you believe us if we said we were trying to shoot them _over _your head?" Miles asked innocently.

"What do _you _think?" snapped Hermione as she clenched the straws tightly.

"Ah. Thought not," said Miles, sharing a grin with the rest of his compatriots.

Hermione simply huffed and returned to the front of the classroom, dropping the straws into the mug on her desk where pencils and pens were kept. She placed her hands on her hips and turned around to face the familiar troublemakers.

"Let's get one thing straight, Lori, Miles, Barrin, Torics, Aggy, Sammy and Benjamin! This is our second time together, and we're all aware that we didn't get off to a very good start the first time around, did we? _Did we?" _The "Sinister Seven" all gulped and shook their heads quickly. "You've caused a lot of trouble for me, and I don't intend for you to cause it again! I especially don't intend for you to influence the others!"

She paused and glanced back at Tony, Alice and Bruno, who looked a bit frightened.

"You're in kindergarten now, which means it's time to grow up. No more silly pranks. We will get through our lessons with no problems and you will respect me. You will behave and do as you are told. Do I make myself clear?"

They merely stared back at her, seemingly awed.

"I said, do I make myself clear?" she asked again, putting extra emphasis on the word "clear."

"Yes, ma'am!" they quickly cried.

Hermione had gotten the response she wanted, but the question was: how long would it last?

She turned to face the three innocents, and Hermione put on a warm smile, trying to ignore what had just happened.

"Sorry about that," she said sweetly. "Now, why don't you lot get some paper and pencils, go over to the tables and work on those self-portraits? I'll let you know when time is up."

Tony, Alice and Bruno were the first to comply. As for the others, they were still rooted to the floor, seemingly shaken by their teacher's boldness. Hermione raised a brow at them, and after a few moments, they finally did the same, retrieving the necessary items from their cubby holes and finding seats at the tables.

Hermione watched their movements like a hawk.

The half hour in which the kids completed their drawings went off without a hitch, thankfully, as did the rest of the morning leading up to lunch. Lunch lasted a solid forty-five minutes, and they were all back from the cafeteria by one o'clock. It was at this time when the kids worked off the post-lunch drowsiness by playing with a few of the toys held in the classroom.

But Hermione _never _let her guard down during all of this.

By two o' clock, it was time for a brief math lesson, so Hermione went to the blackboard and occupied herself with putting various simple equations on the board.

She was so occupied, in fact, that she failed to take notice of Aggy, who was stealthily creeping up behind Hermione, quietly egged on by her fellow Mini Ministry alums.

In Aggy's hand was a piece of paper, with bits of tape attached to the top and bottom. Written on this paper, in vibrant purple letters were the words "KICK ME."

Showing a kind of skill expected of a professional prankster, Aggy made sure to stay out of Hermione's field of vision as she firmly attached the sign to Hermione's back, applying just the right amount of pressure so the act would go unnoticed by her teacher.

Biting her lip to keep from giggling, Aggy gave her friends a triumphant smile before she pulled her leg up and back behind her. All the while, Tony, Alice and Bruno looked on in awe.

Finally, Aggy let loose with a kick that connected pretty high-up on the back of Hermione's right leg.

"Ow!" Hermione whirled around, rubbing the spot on her leg that now smarted. "What was that for?"

"Oh, nothing," Aggy replied airily. "Just getting a bit of exercise."

But Hermione knew better. "Do it again, and it'll be Time Out for you!"

"Whatever you say, _Ms. _Hermione."

Hermione watched Aggy sit back down. Then, she resumed her work on the board … only to feel _two _kicks, one on each leg, this time. These kicks made Hermione sink to her knees, where she received another forceful jab, this one on her butt. "What the -"

Oh, but it wasn't over yet.

Her hands clinging to the chalk tray for support, Hermione was unprepared when she felt two pairs of hands find her underwear, grab firmly, and pull upwards. Her underwear, obviously, wedged itself uncomfortably where it shouldn't have. Hermione screamed from the shock.

A burst of laughter broke out, and Hermione got a look at her wedgie perpetrators: Sammy and Benjamin, who gave each other a high-five.

Careful in her movements, Hermione stood fully up, readjusting her pink underwear, the waistband of which was now above those of her pants.

"That's it!" she fumed. "All of you, except for Tony, Alice and Bruno, are in Time Out for the rest of the day!" She jabbed a finger towards the room's left corner. "Go!"

The Mini Ministry monsters filed over to the designated corner without a word. Again, Hermione was taken aback by their compliance.

In Time Out they stayed as Hermione went on interacting with Tony, Alice and Bruno.

That meant that Hermione didn't see Barrin take a small green lizard out of his pants pocket and slip it to Miles as the time neared the end of school time. Miles, in turn, hid it in his own pocket.

Hermione released the troublemakers five minutes before their parents were due to arrive to pick them up.

"Just go up and put Charlie down her shirt," Barrin whispered to Miles, as all the kids were putting their backpacks on. Hermione was, at the moment, bent over her desk, filling out something in the folder.

Miles nodded his affirmation and stole across the room, taking Charlie, the wriggling green lizard, out from his pocket as he did so.

Hermione didn't notice Miles as he stood up on tiptoe behind her, gingerly pulling back her shirt with one hand and lifting Charlie in the other. Hermione remained oblivious right up until her shirt had been let go and Charlie had been put down it.

By the time Hermione felt something crawling down her back and she had bolted upright, Miles had rejoined the others.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaa!" screamed Hermione as she started to shake furiously, trying to get at whatever was on her. She didn't need the laughter of the kids to tell her this was a prank.

And as luck would have it, right at that moment, there came a knock at the door, which then opened. "Hello?"

Hermione immediately stopped wriggling once a tall man closely resembling Sammy stepped in. But it was hard to do so, seeing as how whatever was on her was making its way down her back.

Sammy's father opened the door wider to reveal even more parents. "Is everyone ready?"

Hermione put on her best greeting smile. "Yes, there they are!"

Sammy's father obviously recognized Hermione, because his expression darkened somewhat. At the same time, the creature on Hermione's body burrowed its way into her pants. "Any trouble?" Sammy's father asked pointedly.

"Nothing I couldn't h-h-handle." Hermione resisted the urge to shake or smack her bottom as the thing slowly made its way across her right butt cheek.

The parents began ushering their kids out of the classroom. "Bye, Ms. Hermione!" they all chorused.

"Bye, everyone! S-s-s-see you tomorrow!" She even waved, for appearances' sake.

The instant everybody had left, Hermione finally gave in and threw herself to the floor, shaking her body like mad in order to get out whatever was in her clothes. After what seemed like minutes, the creature emerged from Hermione's right pants leg and she turned her head in time to spot a little green lizard scurrying towards the still-open door … into the awaiting hands of Barrin, who gave Hermione a grin, mock-salute and walked away.

_Just like old times, _Hermione thought as she groaned and rested her head exasperatedly down on the carpeted floor.

* * *

**A/N: And so, the chaos begins! But are the kids _really _going to behave? Are they? ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"If Hermione thinks she can just give us a speech about how we're supposed to start _growing up _and think that's going to make us behave, then she's got another thing coming," snorted Barrin.

"In fact, she has _lots _of other things coming," snickered Torics.

"Oooh, I can't wait 'til we _really _get started!" exclaimed Lori.

It was later that night, and all of the kids were at Aggy's house, gathered in her room around a table. The three newbies were even there as well.

A "meeting" had been called by Barrin after they left school that afternoon, and seeing as how Aggy had the biggest house out of everybody in the class, they'd decided to convene there. That, and they figured it would be easier to hold this little meeting outside of class, rather than during the school day and thus run the risk of Hermione barging in on them.

The table they were sitting at was a cluttered mess. The outskirts of it were littered with candy wrappers and boxes, most of them of already-eaten Chocolate Frogs. The center of the table wasn't visible at all, because it was hidden underneath a great many number of drawings. Each of these drawings had been done in crayon, and they all served as one thing: prank blueprints.

Every drawing depicted a crudely-drawn Hermione in various situations and forms, but more specifically, the drawings showed her in the kind of situations she would be in after having been subjected to the kids' various pranks. In that case, the drawings were very detailed about what they wanted to do to her.

"By the way, Alice, Bruno and Tony," said Miles, who turned to the newest members of the "Sinister Seven," who could now be called "The Terrible Ten," "welcome to the group!"

"Thanks!" beamed Tony. "We're excited to be here, especially after what we saw today."

I dunno, you guys," said Alice, who seemed to curl in on herself in fear. "We can't do that. We'll get caught."

"No we won't," assured Barrin. "We've done this before, and we didn't into trouble."

"Don't worry. We're professionals," said Lori with a big smile.

"We can't be mean to her. She'll tell our parents. Right, Bruno?" Alice looked at Bruno, who was gazing down at the drawings.

"They seem to know what they're doing," he reasoned. "Besides, how often do we get the chance to have this kind of fun with someone older than us?"

"And it's not mean, it's fun!" cried Barrin.

"It's our _job,_" said Torics.

They could tell Alice was curious to see another round of gags against Hermione, which she had to admit, she was. So, she smiled and gave a nod of confirmation.

"Well, Tony and Bruno have come up with some _great _stuff so far," smiled Benjamin.

"I still can't believe we're this lucky!" squealed Lori. "We get another chance to prank Hermione, but this time, it's for _three weeks_!"

"Plus, I think she might've been our favorite person to prank so far," said Miles, a statement which every former Mini Ministry kid nodded in agreement to. "And the stories we've heard about her from Hogwarts make it even more fun."

"But I have a question," Bruno spoke up. "We've decided to use magic in some of our pranks. How are we going to get away with that?"

"Simple," answered Aggy as she pulled out something from underneath her chair. It was a calendar for the month. "I found this in Mum's things. It's the weeks Hermione will be our teacher for. All the days marked in blue are supposed to be the days that magic will be part of the lesson."

"So, those days will be the ones where we pull those pranks," supplied Barrin. "The Ministry is just looking to see if magic is being used on those days or not. Not if they're spells that are out of the ordinary. They're more focused on Hogwarts students who _aren't _teaching us." He winked.

"Well, one thing is for sure," said Lori as she surveyed all of the drawings. "Hermione should be _very _worried."

"And it all starts tomorrow," Barrin smirked. "We all know what tomorrow is, right?"

Everyone nodded.

* * *

"_Pet Day?" asked Hermione uncertainly._

_Mrs. Fogg nodded, her face apologetic. "I should've told you earlier. You see, we've organized a variety of activities for these first three weeks to help ease the children into the swing of things. I didn't realize we neglected to include it in your lesson plan. Anyway, the parents are bringing the animals in tomorrow morning, so the pets will be there when you arrive, hopefully. Don't worry, there will only be cats and dogs and the like."_

_Hermione, stood back inside Mrs. Fogg's office while being given the news. She merely nodded, already running through possible chaotic scenarios in her mind._

"_I trust you'll be alright with this?" Mrs. Fogg said, looking carefully at Hermione._

_Hermione nodded as her confidence came back. "Absolutely."_

_Mrs. Fogg smiled and leaned back in her chair, now fixing Hermione with a concerned stare. "So, how was your first day? Any problems?"_

"_Nothing I can't handle," Hermione replied, giving a smile as she did so._

"_Good," said Mrs. Fogg. "I knew you could do well." She looked down at her watch. "It's well after dismissal, and I certainly don't want to keep you here any longer than necessary. I'll see you tomorrow, then, Ms. Granger."_

The conversation from earlier that afternoon had served as a bit of a surprise for Hermione. She was in her pajamas, sitting cross-legged on her bed, going over the lesson plan for the rest of the week. She was painfully unaware of the plotting against her that was currently transpiring elsewhere.

Hermione had been poring over the folder for quite a while, simultaneously wondering how best to go about presenting the required information to the kids and how much the schedule would be off-set by any future mayhem. She wasn't surprised that her speech failed to connect with them, given what they had done in the latter part of the day, yet part of her had still hoped that, by some chance, the more "official" setting of the school would have truncated their mischievous nature.

In retrospect, that had been pretty naïve of her.

She would just have to put her foot down again tomorrow, this time using Pet Day as leverage. If the brats refused to behave, then Hermione would just have to put restrictions on what they considered fun.

Finally deciding to turn in for the night, Hermione placed the folder on the bedside table and got underneath the bedsheets before switching off her lamp.

She spent a good deal of time wondering what tomorrow would bring before she managed to drift off to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: And so goes the "calm before the storm." What WILL tomorrow, Pet Day, bring?**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: This is the first chapter where the M rating starts to come into play; when you get near the end, you'll see why. Crude and immature, yes, but again - Blackwolf and I are going all-out with some of these pranks.**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

First thing the next morning, before Pet Day had officially begun, Hermione had lectured her class once again on the penalties of pranking her, especially after what had occurred after her first talking-to yesterday. And it seemed to have paid off, because the kids' expressions after she'd finished had indicated they were heeding her warning. Most likely, this was due to it being Pet Day.

True to Mrs. Fogg's word, by 8:50 a.m., the classroom had become a literal animal house.

There were various cages and kennels housing a variety of house pets set up in the play area, brought in by each of the kids' parents. Well, each of the kids who owned a pet, which tallied at six.

From Hermione's point of view, she could see two dogs, a cat, a light blue bird, an ant farm and a small green lizard that looked oddly familiar. Instantly, the owners of each pet went rushing to greet them when the parents brought them in, while the rest of the kids just went up curiously and began asking their classmates about their pets.

The parents didn't hang around long. In fact, once the animals had been deposited, the adults kissed or hugged their children goodbye, shoved instructions concerning each pet into Hermione's hands, and departed to their respective jobs.

_Nice to see that the parents cared enough to hang around and actually TELL me the instructions, _Hermione thought sarcastically as she closed the door. Then again, maybe they assumed that the children would be knowledgeable-enough of the animals' needs that Hermione wouldn't need that information. But given who most of these kids were, could Hermione _really _subscribe to that theory?

That, and the question of Hermione's ability to teach their children would obviously still be an issue, in their eyes.

"Okay, everyone," she said as she rejoined her charges and straightened out the neon green top she had on above a light-colored pair of jeans, "ah … we have quite a few different kinds of animals here, so let's just make sure that things don't get out of hand, alright?"

"Yes, Hermione," the kids said as one.

From there, Hermione was introduced to each of the pets. There was George, a happily panting Golden Retriever who belonged to Torics, and Benjamin's chocolate Labrador named Jake, who seemed to have trouble controlling his drool as well as his "licker." Benjamin had to keep a drop cloth at the ready because of this. Then, there was Lucy, Lori's orange tabby cat who seemed interested in everything that moved … but mainly the blue bird named Veggie, who was chirping madly and was in the care of Alice. It was unclear whether or not Veggie was aware of Lucy.

The ant farm belonged to Miles, who had taken the time to name each individual ant, but Hermione didn't take the time to memorize them. And finally, the little green lizard named Charlie was owned by Barrin, but Hermione already knew that, seeing as how they'd been "introduced" before. The stern look that Hermione gave Barrin clearly said "no funny business."

The look that Barrin gave her in return was unreadable.

It took a bit of convincing, but the kids were able to get through the morning away from their pets while completing their work. During this time, Hermione familiarized herself with the notes pertaining to each animal, while also keeping a close eye on them.

But every once in a while, the kids would trade secret glances and smirks with one another. At one point, a crumpled-up note had to be passed along; a note which read "After Lunch."

The fun was in the anticipation.

Lunch came and went without trouble, and Hermione was now standing with the kids over by all the animals.

"Hermione?" asked Alice from behind her. Hermione turned around.

"Yes?"

"Veggie needs to get out and fly around once a day," said Alice as she placed her fingers on Veggie's cage latch. "Can I go ahead and let her out now?"

There was a good bit of distance between Hermione and the birdcage, and Hermione's eyes immediately traveled to Lucy the cat, who was literally eyeing Veggie like prey. Recognizing the danger, Hermione began closing the distance.

"Uh, wait a minute, Alice! I don't think that's such a good id-"

But Alice had released the latch and opened the cage before Hermione could get there in time.

Veggie shot of the cage, flapping his wings furiously, obviously happy to be free. He flew a few times around the room and all the while, Lucy's eyes grew wider and her body slunk lower. She was either about to leap up in the air, or run across the room to get to a better jumping point.

It turned out to be the latter.

Lucy jumped down from Lori's lap, her body in a crouched position as she padded across the room, keeping Veggie, who was still fluttering around in the air, in her sights. Lucy let out a low "meow."

That seemed to attract the attention of George, who ceased panting as he closed his mouth and eyed Lucy with interest, a low growl emanating from him.

"Uh oh …" breathed Hermione.

And that's when everything went insane.

George let out a loud "Woof!" and lunged for Lucy. Lucy, who heard George, abandoned tracking Veggie and just started running from George, who was almost right on her.

"George!" yelled Torics.

"Lucy!" cried Lori.

Hermione, who was in a sort of shell-shocked state, had very little time to react before George knocked into her while chasing Lucy. As a result, Hermione fell backwards so that after she hit the ground, her face had come to be directly under Jake's mouth. Benjamin, who had become transfixed by the cat and dog chase, no longer held the drop cloth underneath Jake's mouth. Now, the "drop cloth" was Hermione's face, and indeed, she received quite a bit of slobber full-on as she lay there.

"EUGH!" Hermione gagged, scrambling out from the path of the slobber. It was then that Benjamin put back the drop cloth. _Gee, nice timing, _Hermione thought as she got to her feet and wiped her face with her shirt sleeve.

Once slobber-free, Hermione saw that George had just run past her. Thinking on her feet, she raced after the dog, only to find her feet knocked out from under her moments later. But that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was that this time, her face came into contact with a bowl of moist dog chowder, which splattered a great deal.

_Yuck! _Hermione lifted her face slowly out of the dog food, the un-appetizing taste intermingling with the gooey texture. The combination was complimentary, in an ironic sort of way. Hermione spit out any of the chowder that had gotten into her mouth.

By now, the kids had started laughing, and Hermione couldn't tell if it was simply amused laughter or the triumphant sort. Either way, she didn't care. All she cared about right now was restoring the order.

Determined, Hermione got back to her feet, only bothering to wipe away the excess dog chowder around her eyes for the moment. She could see that Veggie was fluttering in place now, just above the blackboard.

"Lori! Benjamin!" Hermione called out. "Try to get Lucy and George under control!"

Not even bothering to see if Lori and Benjamin complied, Hermione pulled out her desk chair and hauled it over so that it was directly under where Veggie now was. She climbed to stand on top of it, but found that she still couldn't reach the bird. Slightly frustrated, Hermione decided to use a subtle bit of magic to bring Veggie to her, so she took out her wand.

However, she hadn't been anticipating George, who was still chasing Lucy, to come bumping roughly into the chair during his latest lap. It caused Hermione to lose her balance, as well as her wand to go flying. It landed somewhere in the play area.

"Whooooa!"

Hermione went plummeting off the chair and landed face-down on the carpet. Luckily, it was a short fall, so she wasn't seriously hurt. She was, however, disoriented enough to keep lying there, which provided Lori with the opening she had been waiting for.

While getting the attention of Jake, Lori took a handful of dog treats out from her pocket and approached Hermione. Lori gingerly lifted open Hermione's back pants pockets and dropped the dog treats into each of them. During this, Jake had gotten up on all fours from his sitting position, and was eyeing Hermione with hungry eyes. Lori quickly retreated a safe distance away.

Hermione, meanwhile, moaned and gradually drug herself to her feet. She was in the middle of dusting herself off when she heard it: a low growl. Cautiously, she glanced up to see Jake looking at her as if she was a piece of meat. Hermione could read the subtext.

"Niiiice doggie," she spoke in a soothing tone. "Good doggie."

Jake began to advance before letting out a loud bark.

Hermione took that as her cue to run. She could hear Jake gaining on her.

She didn't get very far. Before Hermione knew it, she was on the floor again, but it wasn't because her feet had caught on something.

It was because a sharp set of teeth had sunk themselves into her butt.

Jake was clearly faster than Hermione had anticipated.

"YYYYEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOWWWWWWWWWW!"

The kids wasted no time in laughing even harder at her new predicament. It was then that Hermione wondered if this was the controlled kind of chaos.

Hermione shifted that thought aside as she focused on getting out of Jake's hold. After a minute or so, she could feel his clench on her bottom relieve itself a bit, as it felt he was now more concerned with the fabric of her pants. So, Hermione began to crawl forward, primarily using her arms.

Eventually, a loud ripping noise could be heard, which could only mean one thing. And that one thing was confirmed by the draft that Hermione suddenly felt around her derriere.

"Oh no …"

She scrambled to her feet and saw that Jake was ripping into what had formerly been the seat of her pants. But Hermione could also see a bit of red-and-white striped fabric … the kind of fabric that made up the underwear she had on today.

"Ha ha! We can see your _butt!_"

Mortified, Hermione looked behind her to see that Lori was telling the truth. Her bare butt was now visible, and it was framed by what remained of her pants.

For a moment, Hermione's reaction was delayed. The laughter from the kids eventually snapped her out of it, and after futilely trying to cover up her butt with her hands, anger at the situation took over. And that anger was directed at Jake, who had just finished tearing what remained of Hermione's pants and underwear shreds to pieces.

"Come here, you little -" she said as she lunged at the dog. But Jake had moved out of the way just in time for Hermione's face to go back into the bowl of dog chowder.

As Hermione was contemplating her "luck," Miles crept up to her, ant farm clutched in his arms. Doing his best not to announce himself, Miles tipped the farm so that all of the ants fell onto his teacher's exposed rear.

By the time the little creatures had burrowed into the rest of her pants, causing Hermione to jump to her feet and dance around, Miles had retreated.

Hermione screamed as she hopped up, down and all around, trying with great effort to rid herself of whatever had gotten all over her legs. One look at Miles and his ant farm told her that this all might indeed be a big prank.

While Hermione was dancing around with literal ants in her pants, she didn't notice that her right foot had gotten caught up in the loop of Jake's leash.

She didn't notice until Benjamin shouted, "Go, Jake!" These words made Jake take off like a bullet, which meant the loop tightened around Hermione's ankle and dragged her along behind Jake.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Hermione rolled around, occasionally staying on her back as Jake did a few laps around the carpet. She narrowly avoided table legs. When Hermione wasn't screaming, her ears were filled with the sound of laughter.

Jake stopped just when Hermione began to worry about carpet burn. By then, she had kicked the leash off of her ankle, was face-down on the carpet again and was gasping for air.

_Oh, bloody hell!_

Hermione got up and raced into the bathroom. Once in there and the door had been closed and locked, Hermione dropped her pants and underwear and shook them until each and every creepy-crawly was out of them. Her next job was to wash all of the dog chowder off of her face, which she did with a vengeance.

Growing more furious each second, Hermione quickly scanned the room for a towel to cover her legs with, but unfortunately found none. She suddenly recalled Mrs. Fogg telling her that the janitors had yet to receive all the necessary supplies for the rooms, and towels had been one of them. So, Hermione grunted and yanked her underwear and pants back on, noticing that the ants had filed out in the crack underneath the bathroom door before she opened it.

As Hermione walked to her desk, sideways so as not to give the kids _another _look at her bare butt, she saw that what had been a scene of chaos only minutes before, was now one of complete calm. Every animal was back where they had started the afternoon: in the company of their owners, and very relaxed.

By now, Hermione was certain this had been a prank.

However, what happened next made it a verifiable fact.

Hermione had kept her eyes on the kids and their pets as she sat down on her desk chair. At the time, it didn't seem strange to her that the chair had been put back in its proper place after all the mayhem. But the instant her bottom made contact with the seat, it did.

Because something soft and squishy had been waiting for her; something which spread all over her butt as a result. And it was _not _a pleasant feeling.

It took a few seconds for Hermione to react, but when she did, it was lightning-fast. She leapt to her feet, her chair being pushed away from her in the process, and then she cautiously peered over her shoulder to see what she'd sat in.

It was brown, mushy and it smelled horrible.

"Oh, you have got to be KIDDING ME!" Hermione yelled, disgusted, as the kids clapped instead of laughed.

"Hermione!" said Barrin in a chastising sort of tone. "You were _just in _the bathroom! Did you have an accident?"

The desk mirror showed Hermione's bare butt smeared with animal excrement. It took a lot of effort to keep from vomiting. Her livid eyes shot towards George and Jake. "Which. One. Was. It?" She jabbed her finger in the dogs' direction.

But before the answer could be given, the classroom door opened. Panicked, and with the concealment of her naked, poop-smeared butt a priority, Hermione had no choice but to sit herself back down in the waste.

_Ew, ew, eeeeeeeeeewwwwwww! _were her only thoughts.

The visitors happened to be the parents, and Hermione was once again forced to act normal as the kids and animals were gathered together and shepherded out the door.

As each of the kids passed Hermione, they shot her evil smiles. And Barrin even came up to her desk and left a folded piece of paper on it before making a subtle "Pee-yew!" gesture.

By the time everyone had left, the poop was too spread-out for Hermione's liking, and she got out of her chair as if an electric current had been run through it. Her butt felt absolutely icky, not to mention it stank something terrible, and she couldn't wait to get in the shower.

Angrily, she snatched up the paper Barrin had left her and read what was on the inside.

It was a tally; a tally which read, "Us: 5, Hermione: 0."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I apologize for the slightly longer wait, but I'm sure this will be worth it. :)**

* * *

**Chapter 5**

Hermione emerged from the main entrance to the school through a fireplace connected to the Floo Network. She was ticked off, given what had happened yesterday.

She wordlessly made her way towards the classroom, once more silently rehearsing the speech she was prepared to deliver to the class about how they were seriously toeing the line with her now.

After entering the classroom, Hermione delivered the speech passionately, ending it with, "If you lot aren't going to show me, _your teacher_, some common courtesy and respect, then special things like Pet Day will quickly start to go away. Am I understood?" She surveyed the faces of the kids with an arched eyebrow.

"Yes," they all answered rather glumly.

Hermione gave a satisfied smile and nodded. "Good." She walked over to her desk, checking her chair for any hidden contents. Relieved to find nothing, she scooped up a collection of pink paper slips. "Now, we'll be taking a field trip to the Magical Artifacts Museum next week, and your parents need to sign these permission slips in order for you to go. So, tonight, I would please like you to get these signed."

As Hermione passed out the permission slips, she noticed the kids got visibly excited.

"If everyone could have them signed and turned in by Friday, in two days, then that would be wonderful."

When Hermione turned her back to return to her desk, she obviously didn't see the kids all exchange mischievous smirks, even a few raised eyebrows of amusement.

Hermione quickly consulted the schedule for the day, and then at the clock mounted above the door. "Alright, then. It's time for our weekly Gym Class, so please put your slips into your cubbies and quickly and calmly line up so we can go."

The fact that her charges did as she asked without incident helped to alleviate her fears of another prank. So, she gathered up the room keys and headed for the door.

As she did, Aggy looked up the line to Miles, who looked to Bruno, who looked to Sammy and so on until the looks reached Barrin, who mouthed, "Wait 'til we get there!" to his fellow classmates. They all nodded in understanding and anticipation.

The walk to the gym was pleasantly calm and uneventful, and Hermione was finally starting to feel at ease when they came to the gym doors. She opened them so her class could file inside.

The gym was the same kind of average Muggle-style school gym that Hermione remembered from her pre-Hogwarts years, save for a few differences. There was no office area anywhere in sight for a Gym Teacher. That would be because each teacher in this school taught their students in each and every area (writing, art, gym, etc.), thus reducing the need for extra teachers. And also reducing the need for extra spending by the Ministry. _It's more about efficiency and effectiveness, _Hermione reasoned.

The gym was adorned in Ministry of Magic banners, almost like the ones for Houses in the Great Hall, had a wooden floor decorated in various-colored lines, and smaller-sized Quidditch hoops where there would have been basketball hoops in a Muggle gym.

"Alright, everyone," said Hermione. "We have half an hour. What would you all like to do?"

"Play a game, of course!" cried Alice.

"Okay. What game?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Barrin, who raised his hand. "What about Tag?"

This surprised Hermione, partly because she expected them to choose indoor Quidditch, but also because they were familiar with such a Muggle game.

"Really?" She looked through the kids' faces, which all expressed their wish plainly. "Okay, Tag it is!"

The kids all cheered.

"But, we'll need a referfee," said Lori.

"Referee," corrected Aggy. "Hermione, could you referee for us?"

Hermione nodded, figuring it would be wise to make sure nobody got hurt. "Good thinking, Aggy. I'd be happy too," she smiled, rolling up the sleeves of her faded blue shirt.

Aggy gave a victorious smile to her friends, who all winked back at her.

And so their game of Tag commenced.

Benjamin was the first to be deemed "It," and he promptly chased around the others until he could tag his first victim, who turned out to be Alice. Hermione stood in the center of the mass of running kids, keeping a watchful eye over each and every one of them. She was so occupied, in fact, that she failed to notice Alice discreetly slip behind her and quickly deliver a brief but forceful smack to Hermione's butt.

"Hey!" cried Hermione as she stumbled slightly. "What the …"

Hermione twirled around to see who had hit her, but Alice had already dashed away by then. Alice had also tagged Lori in the process.

Deciding to shrug off the butt slap for now, Hermione started to turn around, but received another hit to the butt as she did.

She yelped and wheeled around, only to come up empty again.

_What's going on here? _Hermione asked herself, but the thought made her miss Lori passing off the tagging duties to Bruno, who smiled widely as he raced up and swatted his teacher's butt.

"Ow!"

That solidified Hermione's suspicions, and she anticipated the next butt slap, or _thought _she did, and turned around to close her arms … around empty air.

Now, it was Barrin's turn to be "it," and he did an athletic slide in-between Hermione's outstretched legs and came to stand up behind her as her butt stuck out a little. Barrin slapped Hermione's butt not once, but five times rapid-fire, almost like a pair of drums. He finished it off with a good-natured pinch.

"ENOUGH!" yelled Hermione as she straightened up. "That's enough Gym Class for today!" She made sure to keep her butt turned away from the kids as she placed her hands on her hips angrily. "We're going to go back to class now, and when we get back, all of you are going to spend twenty minutes in Quiet Time!"

Despite the punishment, the kids still managed to trade satisfied smiles.

On the way back to the classroom, Hermione made sure to keep her butt out of the kids' line of fire while also keeping a sharp eye on them. It was during their twenty minutes of Quiet Time that Hermione began to wonder if _anything _she lectured, or threatened to take away would ever get through. There was plenty of time left in her assigned detail, and she'd be damned if she was going to be made a fool of again.

All it required was a firmer hand.

When Quiet Time was up, Hermione sternly asked, "Are you all ready to behave and get on with the day?"

The kids nodded. Hermione would just have to take it on good faith that they were being honest. Then again, look where good faith had gotten her thus far.

But it was her _duty _to act as teacher to these bratty children, and even if it meant enduring countless pranks, Hermione would get the job done.

"Right, then," she said as she got up and went over to a large black cauldron she had set up at the head of the class, "today's lesson is on cauldron brewing. Gather round, please. But not too close."

As the kids filed over from the tables, Hermione conjured up a few ingredients that could be used to make a basic potion, one with no side effects. Hermione decided that an average paste-like substance would be in order. She waited until the kids had all taken seats on the floor a decent distance from the cauldron.

The cauldron was situated on a burner, so the distance was beneficial in that regard.

Hermione turned on the burner with a flick of her wand. "Okay, so, I'm just going to show you all how to properly mix in a cauldron. We're just going to make a paste which, if properly brewed, should come out purple. If this comes out well, then we can move on to custard!"

As Hermione uncorked the first few bottles of ingredients, the kids leaned forward eagerly.

With the carefulness and attention to detail she normally demonstrated in Potions class, Hermione went about mixing together the ingredients.

"Now, you need to make sure you're _very _careful when mixing ingredients," she said as she worked. "Otherwise, the mixture might become unstable, and who knows what'll happen then."

"_We _do," snickered Tony as he nudged Bruno knowingly. Bruno grinned in return.

Once the right amounts of all the ingredients had been put in, Hermione conjured up a wooden spoon and began to stir slowly.

"Brewing a potion also requires a good bit of patience," Hermione continued. "But if you do it right, then the end result will be worth the effort."

"You can say _that _again," giggled Lori under her breath.

This seemed to catch Hermione's attention, because she looked up from the cauldron. "Do you have a question, Lori?"

"No, Hermione." Lori shook her head. "I just said I hope it turns out well."

Hermione smiled. "So do I. I followed the basic recipe closely. So, in about a minute, we'll find out." She finished stirring, tapped the spoon on the side of the cauldron to get off dripping excess and placed the spoon on her desk. Once that was done, Hermione turned her back to the kids. "In fact, I'm going to write the recipe on the board so you all can see what I did."

This was the opening that the kids had been waiting for.

Light on his toes, Tony extracted two separate vials from his pockets as he crept over the cauldron. Once he was directly in front of the cauldron, Tony uncorked the vials and poured in the contents. He had a devilish smile on his face as he did, along with the rest of the class.

One of the benefits about having the class schedule was knowing when lessons like this were coming up. That way, the kids could use items from their Zonko's Joke Shop "collection" as necessary.

Tony retreated back to his seat as fast as he could, giving a high-five to Bruno in the process.

Oblivious to the whole thing, Hermione turned back around to face her class again. "Alright, so -"

She cut herself off when she noticed the surface of the paste. While it had indeed turned the correct shade of purple, it was now bubbling madly, and it should _not _have been doing that. Especially since she had followed the recipe to the letter.

"What the … ?"

Hermione curiously approached the cauldron, tucking stray strands of hair behind her ear. While she did, the kids all retreated to hide behind and under different pieces of furniture in the room.

If Hermione had more time to register that, she would have. But she didn't, because a second after everyone had braced themselves, the purple contents of the cauldron made a glurping noise and promptly exploded upward.

The purple paste was plastered over a good bit of the blackboard, wall and floor, but mainly, it was plastered all over Hermione. And judging from the sensation she felt all over her body as a result, she could confirm to herself that she had indeed mixed the paste correctly. Not only did the paste coat every inch of Hermione's body, it also had the same sticky consistency as the green goo she had been doused in back at the Mini Ministry.

_Good times, _Hermione thought sarcastically to herself as she walked over to the bathroom, where there was a small shower.

Just like when she'd been covered in slime at the Mini Ministry, Hermione didn't say a word to the kids as she made her trek.

But she didn't need to look at them to know that they were all smiling in triumph.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: And things just continue to build...**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

After three exhaustive days of pranks, courtesy of the kids, Hermione was now pondering a new method to deal with the brats. It was a method she'd used all her life up until this point, especially whenever confronted with ridicule of any kind, and it had worked so far.

Ignore them. Just ignore them.

Sure, it seemed like a daft idea, but Hermione had obviously thought it through. The kids appeared hell-bent on getting a rise out of her, as a result of utterly humiliating her, of course. If Hermione refused to express her anger after the inevitable future pranks, then that would hopefully undercut the kids' satisfaction at besting her again.

From Hermione's point of view, denying the pranksters this was like letting a student take a test, but not letting them see what they scored on it. In a way, it was similar to reverse psychology, and Hermione was all for using smarts as a method to accomplish something.

So, that morning, Hermione opened the classroom door ready for anything that the kids could throw at her next … except for what was currently awaiting her on the other side of the door.

Connected to the other side of the door knob was a string. That string was attached in such a way so that when the door was swung in and closed, just as Hermione had done, it released a bunch of pencils into the air. Once released, the pencils no longer served as the devices holding back what looked like a giant rubber band. In the center of that rubber band was an orange rubber ball, the kind normally used in dodgeball.

After the door had been closed, the pencils released and the ball let loose, Hermione innocently turned to re-face the classroom. Seconds later, the rubber ball collided dead-center into her crotch.

Usually, crotch injuries are something associated with males, but as Hermione clutched hers in pain and sank to her knees, she could confirm that females were just as susceptible.

"Direct hit!" one of the kids cried out amongst all the laughter from the kids. Hermione was too preoccupied to place the voice with its owner.

Since her eyes were closed as she comically clutched her private area, Hermione failed to see Miles load another ball into the "shooter." This one was red, and smacked Hermione square in the face.

"Mmph!" The action sent Hermione reeling back so that she slumped against the door, her face stinging almost as much as her crotch. The laughter continued.

When Hermione deemed herself able enough, she decided to pull herself to her feet. But since her lower half still hurt a fair deal, she was forced to turn herself onto her hands and knees without thinking things through.

This, of course, provided Miles with a new target.

Hermione was positioned so that her butt was sticking out in the air. Pretty soon, her butt fell victim to the ball launcher, too, much to her embarrassment.

_Bloody kids' humor_, she thought to herself bitterly.

True to her intentions, though, Hermione said nothing to the kids as she finally stood and made her way over to the sink. She did so in small steps and with quick exhalations of air.

Hermione turned on the cold water and began to splash some into her face to relive the stinging.

Behind her, though, there was a thin bulge in the carpet making its way toward her. It was a broomstick. And even after it had come out from under the carpet and was quietly floating its way toward her of its own volition, Hermione remained ignorant.

The broomstick came to rest directly between her legs, decidedly _not _in a desirable location at the moment.

Hermione turned off the water and in the same moment, she heard Bruno yell, "Up!"

All of a sudden, Hermione had a great deal of sympathy for all those men in Muggle movies who sustained groin hits. As the kids burst out laughing again, Hermione crumpled to the ground, once more holding the area that hurt.

She stayed that way for a good few minutes, not caring how she looked. Only when it felt like the pain had subsided enough did Hermione force herself back up and trudge over to her desk. Breathing out heavily as she did so, Hermione lowered herself into her seat. She then conjured a large bag of ice, which went onto the throbbing body part.

"Just please play quietly for now," she told her tormentors. She didn't have the energy, or the strength, to deal with them at the moment.

The kids happily followed her order for the next half hour. During this half hour, Hermione alternated between keeping her eyes on the kids' activities and closing them as she let the ice do its work. Once she was satisfied that she could handle regular strides again, Hermione got up and went into the bathroom.

This allowed Barrin an opportunity to consult with his fellow conspirators.

"Do you still have it?" Aggy asked him.

"Yep," Barrin replied, as he discreetly pulled a portion of something out of his pants pocket. It was a wand. "Dad's in charge of entertaining some Muggles today, so he left it behind at home."

"Excellent!" squealed Lori. "Now, all we need to do is cast the spell and enjoy the show!"

Everyone snickered at this.

The bathroom door opened and Hermione came out, the ice bag gone. Even though her steps weren't so miniscule now, she was clearly walking carefully.

Barrin gripped the handle of his father's wand tight and after Hermione passed him, he quickly whipped it out, aimed it at his teacher, and whispered a spell.

By the time Hermione was at the blackboard and had turned around to address her students, Barrin had slipped the wand back in his pocket. But the initial effects of the spell had already occurred, and most of the kids had to stifle their laughs.

"Alright, guys," Hermione said, still choosing to go down the 'ignore them' route, "before we begin today, I must mention I'll be spending the last part of the afternoon in a meeting with other teachers and Principal Fogg. And while I'm there, you'll have a different sub."

Some of the kids noticeably deflated upon hearing this, but others perked up.

"When that sub is here, I expect _all of you _to be on your best behavior. Is that understood?" She fixed them all with a pointed stare.

"What's the matter, Hermione? Tired of being the butt of our jokes?" asked Torics.

The kids immediately burst out laughing. Hermione's cheeks flushed with anger.

"That's enough! You will not pull _anything _on the sub. Do I make myself clear?" she said through gritted teeth. She waited as calmly as she could for the laughter to die down.

"Yes, Hermione," they all chorused.

"Good."

From there, the day officially began. Thankfully, the morning's activities were uninterrupted by any further mayhem, but occasionally Hermione heard brief outbursts of giggling from a few of the kids.

"Calm down, please," she would say politely.

But the giggling persisted.

At one point, Hermione even thought she heard Benjamin whisper something that sounded like, "Look how big it's getting!" but she wasn't entirely sure.

Before Hermione knew it, it was time for lunch, and in the cafeteria occurred something odd.

Her class was sitting at their rectangular table, chatting animatedly as they partook in sandwiches, juice boxes and the like. Hermione was standing by a column near where every kid stands in line if they get their food at school, using her right shoulder to lean into it at an angle. She had already finished eating, so like all the other teachers, she was making sure everything remained in control.

But while she was standing there, Hermione heard laughter come from behind her above the dull roar of cafeteria-wide chatter. Curious, she turned around to find a boy and a girl staring at her and laughing.

Hermione smiled slightly in an attempt to appear cooperative. "What's so funny?"

"Oh," said the boy as he tried to control himself, "just a joke." He and the girl dashed away back to their table.

While Hermione had her back turned to them, her class once again enjoyed their accomplishment by exchanging high-fives.

The brief encounter in the cafeteria stayed with Hermione even after they had all gone back to the room. There was just something about that boy's response that seemed suspicious to her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

The kids, meanwhile, were continuing to watch Barrin's spell take effect, and the best part was that Hermione still couldn't detect anything.

Pretty soon, it was time for the teachers' meeting, and the sub arrived right on time.

Hermione met the sub, who was a middle-aged blonde woman wearing a light blue outfit, at the door.

"Class!" she called for attention, which she got. "This is Ms. Cooper. She'll be with you while I go to my meeting. Now, while I'm gone, I expect you to _behave _for her."

As Hermione was talking to the class, Ms. Cooper eyed her with a look of concern and confusion, a look which Hermione missed.

"I should be back before you all go home." She faced Ms. Cooper again. "They're all yours. Watch them closely."

Hermione attempted to squeeze past Ms. Cooper as she entered, but as she did, she found it to be more difficult than it should have been, which was strange, considering that the doorframe looked wide enough to fit them both.

Once out in the hallway, Hermione pushed the thought aside and made her way to the main office. When she got there, the main receptionist directed her to a conference room on the small hallway to the right. Said receptionist fixed Hermione with a curious look as the teenage teacher followed her directions.

Hermione reached the conference room to discover that she was the last to arrive. She couldn't help but notice everyone give her strange stares as she made her way over to an unoccupied chair.

"What?" asked Hermione. She glanced down at herself. "Is there something on my clothes?"

"No," Mrs. Fogg said quickly. "Nothing of the sort. Well … now that we're all here, we can get started."

Hermione nodded and lowered herself into the chair. However, she found her progress in doing so a bit harder than she had anticipated. As a result, Hermione was forced to wriggle and struggle slightly in order to fit fully into the seat.

During this, the rest of the teachers looked on with a mixture of what Ms. Cooper had shown: confusion and concern.

Finally, Hermione managed to get situated. "There," she sighed, trying to remain professional. "These chairs are a bit out of proportion, it seems."

"Yes," spoke up a red-haired teacher. "Mightily deceptive, they can be."

Mrs. Fogg shot the teacher a glare, which Hermione missed.

"Alright," the principal cut in as she put on a pair of glasses and consulted some notes. "First, I appreciate all of you taking the time to do this meeting now. My schedule was too hectic to do it later today. Anyway, our first order of business …"

The meeting went on to cover various topics concerning lesson plans and upcoming events. Everything was very general until the very end, when Mrs. Fogg began to address each teacher individually, concerning a sort of Open House. The event was to be held at the end of the first few weeks of classes so that parents could see how their kids were acclimating to the school.

The Open House was to include various activities, which each class would be assigned separately. Hermione's was the last to get their task.

"Ms. Granger," Mrs. Fogg said as she looked over a piece of paper. "Your class will be putting on a small play. It's an adaptation of a little-known magical folk tale, where young kids must defend themselves against an evil witch. And we thought it'd be fun if you could participate by playing the evil witch."

This left Hermione at something of a loss for words. Mainly because it sounded awfully like what was going on in her classroom already. Eventually, she managed a question.

"Is there a script?"

"Yes," confirmed Mrs. Fogg. "You'll receive copies of it tomorrow to pass out to your students. And rehearsal time will be every Friday and Monday afternoons until the Open House. But don't worry, it's not a very long play, so it won't be too difficult to learn."

But there was something nagging at Hermione about this whole idea. Still, she couldn't exactly say no, most likely because this was part of the deal with Ms. Stats and the Ministry, so she just smiled and nodded her assent.

"Great!" exclaimed Mrs. Fogg. "Well, that just about wraps it up. And right before dismissal, no less. Thank you all for your time."

Every teacher got up and filed out the door, except Hermione, who was once again struggling with her chair. It took a few minutes, but she was finally able to extricate herself.

Mrs. Fogg had remained behind. "I was about to help, but I didn't want to impose," she said sheepishly.

This confused Hermione. "How would you be -"

"Not important. Well, then, see you tomorrow, Ms. Granger."

Still unsure about all the weird occurrences of the afternoon, Hermione left the main office to see every student filing their way toward the Floo fireplaces with their parents.

"Bye, Blubber Butt," she heard Barrin say. Barrin was passing beside her and grinning. But before Hermione could say anything, he and his parents were gone in a flash of green flames.

That comment started to raise suspicions very high, but unfortunately, Hermione couldn't find an adequate reflective surface until she had Flooed her way home and stood sideways in front of her bedroom mirror.

Hermione was thankful her parents weren't home yet to her scream of anger upon discovering that her butt had been inflated to the size of about two watermelons.

"_Little brats_!" she hissed venomously.

Hermione spent most of the rest of the night trying to shrink her rear back down to its normal size, all the while trying to determine when the kids had done this. _This _had been what everybody had been noticing about her, and yet, they had said nothing.

After eating dinner alone in her bedroom, it became obvious no reversal spell was working in the slightest. It was then that Hermione remembered Fred and George recently talking about this very spell. And it was with a sinking heart that she remembered Fred saying:

"It lasts until the start of the next day."

So Hermione was effectively stuck like this until she woke up the next morning.

_Just bloody fantastic_.

Wise enough to know not to try and change attire, Hermione simply flopped face-first down on her bed and decided to call it an early night.

She slept on her stomach, keeping her oversized butt upturned and looking forward to it being appropriately proportioned again.

_Why me? _Hermione thought to herself miserably.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Hermione was relieved to wake up the next morning and find that her butt had shrunken back down to its normal size. That meant that she could change out of her wrinkled clothes from the previous day, revel in a nice warm shower and don a new attire of a faded purple top and jeans. After taking a few minutes to look over the coming day's schedule once more, she bid her parents farewell and stepped through the green flames in their fireplace to emerge in the main lobby of the school.

The humiliation of yesterday was still with Hermione, so much so that when she got to the classroom, after carefully checking the door for any traps, she chose to forgo the idea of ignoring all the pranks and unleashed her fury at the kids. This resulted not only in the children regarding her with genuine fear, but also an hour-long Time Out for them all. Of course, Hermione wasn't naïve enough to believe that this would permanently fix the tension between her and the kids, but it still allowed a brief time of peace, and she would take however much of that she could get. More importantly, though, it told the kids that they would need to do a lot more to really get her to crack.

Little did Hermione know that the kids were now taking that last part to heart.

During the Time Out session, Hermione took notice of the stack of scripts that had been left on her desk. The scripts were no doubt for the play that her class was set to perform in a few weeks' time. Stuck to the top of the pile was a note which read, "Distribute today. Rehearsals begin on Monday. Mrs. Fogg."

Hermione took the time to quickly look through the script. But more specifically, she read through the part where her character got her comeuppance. Fortunately, there was nothing in the script that was as over the top or humiliating than anything the kids had done to her thus far, so Hermione's worries began to subside.

At the end of Time Out, Hermione gave each of the kids their copies of the script while also informing them of the situation, including the fact that she'd be taking part in the play herself. She noticed the kids perk up at this.

"Alright, then," she said once that was taken care of, "do any of you have signed permission slips to turn in for the Field Trip next week?"

Everybody's hands shot up, each clutching a permission slip.

Hermione had to be impressed by their determined resolve as she collected each slip, but then again, students _always _get excited about Field Trips.

The rest of the morning passed without any interruptions. Not that Hermione was complaining, but she'd thought that given today was Friday, the kids might have been especially restless. So far, however, they seemed agreeable. And by the time lunch rolled around, Hermione was holding out hope that this would be her first prank-free day with the kids.

The kids, obviously, had no such plans.

"What are we waiting for?" Torics whined impatiently during lunch.

"Relax," said Benjamin. "We're just waiting, is all."

"Yeah," spoke up Miles. "After all, we're going out to the playground later. _Play _being the important word there."

"I already have some ideas for when we're out there, too!" Tony exclaimed as he leaned forward.

"But we all remember our _real _mission, right?" asked Aggy.

Everyone nodded.

So, a little after lunch, they all found themselves outside on the playground, along with a few of the other classes. The teachers were watching over everyone from behind a fence, which kept the playground relatively closed-in, and Hermione was standing right there with them. She was doing her best to strike up polite conversation with her peers when Lori skipped up to her.

"Hermione! Hermione!"

"Yes, Lori?"

"Can you come and play with us?" asked Lori with as much sweetness in her voice as was possible.

"Ah …"

Hermione was hesitant, mainly because she couldn't be entirely sure that this wasn't a trap of some kind. She certainly wouldn't put it past the kids at this point, but the other teachers were gazing at Lori like she was the cutest thing in the world. Hermione knew that to openly deny her would seem callous.

So, she smiled and nodded, coming into the playground by opening a door in the fence.

"Yay!"

Lori grabbed Hermione's hand and guided her over to the sandbox, where Aggy and Alice were currently digging around with plastic shovels.

Hermione stepped into the sandbox and surveyed the girls. "What are you girls doing?"

"Digging for treasure!" declared Alice. "Like pirates would do!"

Hermione gave a good-natured laugh. "Sounds like fun! Have you found anything yet?"

"No, but we were hoping you could help!" cried Lori as she stuck a turquoise-colored shovel up in Hermione's direction.

Hermione decided that this was too cute not to indulge in, so she took the shovel. "Okay. Where do I dig, then?" The sandbox was big enough to fit at least ten people, and the three girls were covering only a portion of it.

"Over there!" Lori pointed to a spot just a few steps away. "And if you find anything, tell us!"

Hermione grinned, figuring she could conjure up some small items to hide in the sand to placate them. "I'll be sure to!" She went over to her designated spot, got down on her knees and began to dig.

After a minute had passed, Lori looked to Aggy and Alice while Hermione's back was still turned. All three of the girls winked and filled the troughs of their shovels with as much sand as they could. Then, they quietly got up and snuck over behind Hermione.

By this time, all of the other members of Hermione's class were looking on with glee.

With her free hand, Lori counted down three … two … one, then they struck.

Alice tightly grabbed onto the waistband of Hermione's pants.

"What the -"

Hermione tried to move, but Alice had sat down on her teacher's legs by now. Alice proceeded to dump all of the sand on her shovel down the back of Hermione's pants.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!" Hermione squealed.

The sand-dumping persisted while Alice stayed seated on Hermione's legs and Lori and Aggy unloaded their shovelfuls.

The feeling of sand in her pants was anything but pleasant, and once Hermione had been freed by Alice, she raced away towards a collection of thick bushes in order to fix herself.

The bushes provided more than enough coverage, but it wasn't until after Hermione had dropped her jeans and underwear and swept the sand away with her wand, did it occur to her that she could've just used her wand and _not _dropped her pants.

Nonetheless, Hermione scanned the area to make sure her pants-less legs hadn't been spotted by anyone as she pulled said clothing items back up and re-secured them. At the same time, the whistle signaling the end of Recess was sounded, and the kids all reluctantly stopped what they were doing and started to walk back towards their teachers.

All except for Hermione's students.

"Time to go inside, class!" she called out as she stepped away from the bushes. But nobody made a move to acknowledge her.

Hermione sighed and instead focused on finding the brats who had "sanded" her first. But she couldn't seem to spot them anywhere, especially not in the sandbox.

"Gather up!" she yelled again, but still the kids played.

Hermione was so preoccupied, in fact, that she wasn't aware of where she was going. As a result, when she stopped in her tracks, she didn't notice where she was now standing: with her legs between the thin wooden plank of the seesaw. To make matters worse, it was the end that was on the ground.

"Need help?" asked Torics, who was in front of Hermione.

"Yes, Torics. Have you seen where Lori, Aggy and Alice are?"

"No," grinned Torics. "But the better question is, have you seen where _you _are?"

"What?"

It was then that Hermione finally took note of her position. But it was a moment too late.

"Seesaw time!" shouted Torics as he jumped on the upturned end of the item. And just like yesterday, Hermione's crotch took a harsh blow.

"Y-you l-l-little …"

Hermione sank to her knees in pain while Torics dismounted his side. The act of closing her eyes, however, meant that Hermione didn't see Torics hop back on, and thus send the opposite end soaring up to crash into Hermione's chin.

The last thing Hermione registered before blacking out and falling back onto the grass was the new surge of pain.

The kids all gathered around her unconscious form.

"Someone get her wand," ordered Barrin. "It'll be easier than us carrying her."

* * *

Groggily, and with her head throbbing, Hermione awoke. When she did, she instantly noticed two things that were wrong.

Her mouth had a stretch of duct tape covering it, thus forcing her to breathe solely through her nose and any curses to be muffled. Also, her arms and legs were stretched out at angles they'd be in if she were making snow angels. But that wasn't the weirdest part.

Her vision was obscured by something dark brown and fuzzy, not to mention soft, from the looks of it. Through the … fabric, she deduced, Hermione could make out the faint outline of a room and a group of kids sitting on the floor of that room.

But more importantly, she could hear a voice speaking.

"It was very nice of Ms. Granger's class to give us this new toy, wasn't it? I hope you all enjoy it very much."

The voice belonged to a woman, and Hermione could place it as the voice of the teacher across the hall from her classroom.

_What the bloody hell is going on?_

"Now," continued the familiar teacher, "since it's Friday and it's almost time to leave, I'll let you all have a bit of playtime."

_Wait, what? A bear? Am I in a stuffed bear? _That at least explained the soft material that felt like it was encasing Hermione. _How did I get IN here? And where does everyone THINK I am?_

The answer to the first question was painfully obvious: the kids. And the answer to Hermione's other ones came soon after.

"And since Ms. Granger is currently with Principal Fogg, her class will be with us until pick-up," said the teacher. "Well, have fun!"

_Wait until I get my hands on those –_

But Hermione's vengeful thoughts were cut short by a mob of excited children attacking her from all angles. With her arms and legs secured tightly enough by the stuffing in the sockets, she was unable to make any move to protect herself, and her muffled protests were all but drowned out by the kids' noises.

Not long after the kids swarmed her, Hermione fell over onto her left side, then the bear costume rolled so that she ended up on her back. Things didn't get much better from there.

Through the duct tape, Hermione let out an "Ooomph!" when one of the kids belly-flopped onto the area over her stomach.

"Attack the bear!" one of the kids yelled.

_Don't attack the bear, don't attack the bear! _Hermione thought desperately, only for it to be in vain.

She was immediately met with the sensation of numerous little feet and fists pounding on the bear, and most of the blows, though softened, still penetrated through. During all this, Hermione was pulled over onto her right side … only to receive quite a few quite a few kicks to the butt area.

_That figures._

Once the kids were satisfied with their kicking, Hermione was on her back again, and she soon felt many small bodies climbing on top of her. The pressure accompanying it was becoming too much.

But it seemed like none of the kids were making a move to get off. On the contrary, they were all squeezing the bear, hugging it like it was a relative they'd not seen in a long time.

That was when the punching started, mainly on the bear's, and subsequently Hermione's, head. At least the cushioning made the impacts less painful than they would have been otherwise.

"Die, bear! Die, die, die!" a young boy snarled with every hit. Hermione also felt a few others jumping up and down on her.

"Ethan!" the teacher cried. "We don't do that! In fact, all of you are being much too rough. If you can't play with the bear peacefully, we'll have to give it back."

"Sorry, Ms. Winters," the kids said together.

"It's almost time to go, anyway. Why don't you put it over with the other toys?"

Seconds later, Hermione was being dragged across the floor until she stopped, and was angled up. Clearly, she'd been sat against a wall.

As she spent a minute trying to regain her bearings, Hermione suddenly heard outcries of "Mum!" and "Dad!" which meant the parents had arrived.

But that did nothing to help her predicament.

After a few minutes, the noise of movement died down, and Hermione couldn't even detect Ms. Winters still in the room. It was at the point when she saw the faint glow of light go out through the fabric of the bear that she lost all hope of being freed.

_Did those brats seriously just leave me like this? Wait, why am I doubting if they would?_

Hermione was close to tears when she heard the sound of fast-approaching footsteps.

_Here! I'm in here!_

Soon, she heard the sound of a zipper, and Hermione's line of vision from stomach-level was cleared. Two pairs of small hands grabbed her by the shirt and with a surprising amount of strength, hauled her out of her stuffed prison.

It was Miles and Torics who had come back for her. They were grinning wickedly down at her.

"Have fun?" asked Miles.

"Mmph mm nn mmph!"

Torics chuckled and removed the duct tape with a stinging swipe.

"Ouch!" said Hermione.

"Thanks for playing with us!" sneered Torics. "Well, see you Monday. Have a nice weekend!" He and Miles walked towards the door, but stopped and turned around. "We _did _think about just leaving you there. Be thankful we did you a favor and came back. You need to be well-rested."

And as Torics and Miles left her company, Hermione, still dazed, had to admit they had a point.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: A short, prank-less chapter this time. This is more of a "breather", for both Hermione and us. But never fear, the mayhem will resume shortly. ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

"I don't understand, the Ministry _wanted _you back with these kids?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Yes," replied Hermione as she fiddled her fingers in her lap. "They want to maintain their image. They can't have a bunch of hyperactive children sullying their good name."

"In that case, this new Minister sounds like a bloody idiot, if you ask me," snorted Ron. "Who _cares _about a bunch of kids being a tad wild?"

It was late Saturday night, and the three friends had secluded themselves to Ron's room after most of the other Weasleys had retired for the night. Since the time Hermione would've normally spent with Harry and Ron had been considerably diminished due to her last-minute schedule change, she had decided to spend the remaining weekends until the start of term at The Burrow. Fortunately, her parents had been agreeable with that, and seeing as how the Weasleys' fireplace was connected to the Floo Network, it wasn't as if it was inconvenient in the slightest.

Hermione, Harry and Ron were each dressed in their pajamas and seated on beds. Hermione was cross-legged on Harry's and Ron was solely occupying his own.

"Well, politics is perception, Ron," said Hermione. "It's a Muggle saying," she added upon seeing Ron's confused look. "Besides, if _you _were given a chance to fix your public image after a particularly big blunder, wouldn't you take it?"

"Seeing as how he's had quite a few of them," joked Harry.

"Shut up," muttered Ron. "At least _I've _never ended up stark naked and covered in blue paint and glitter."

Hermione gritted her teeth and got up to advance on Ron, but Harry pulled her back down. "Easy, you two," he soothed.

"That reminds me, though," snarled Hermione. "You wouldn't happen to have a copy of that picture lying around, _would you, Ronald?_"

"What do you think?"

Hermione silently pulled out her wand and raised it straight into the air. Ron's desk drawer instantly sprang open and from it flew out a copy of _The Daily Prophet, _which landed in Hermione's awaiting hand. As she suspected, it was the issue covering her Mini Ministry embarrassment. Due to the nature of the picture, black bars hovered over her "mature areas."

"George put that there!" Ron exclaimed in a panicked tone.

In response, Hermione used her wand to ignite the paper in contained flames, until the visual reminder of that past prank was no more.

"Let's just drop the subject, shall we?" Harry said in an appeasing voice.

"For now." Hermione leveled a withering stare at Ron, who quivered when hit with it.

"Hermione," continued Harry, "if these kids keep pulling pranks on you, then shouldn't you be able to put an end to it as their teacher?"

"I've tried, but Time Outs have no effect on them whatsoever."

"You could give those little thickheads a good wallop," suggested Ron.

"Ron!" Hermione reprimanded. "I can't do that."

"You have a wand, don't you? No one would know with the right spell."

Hermione simply glared at him.

"Or, why not go to the Principal and tell her what's going on?" Harry suggested, giving Ron an exasperated look.

"I …" Hermione had to mentally kick herself for not thinking of that sooner. "I guess I just thought I could handle this myself, and I still do, Harry."

"Hermione, come on," said Ron, who finally got the nerve to speak again. "We all know how smart, and tough, you can be, but your pride really is taking a beating right now. You have to suck it up and show these wank – er, kids – who's boss. The other teachers, not to mention the _parents, _can help you out there! Stop being thick!"

"I'm _not _being thick!"

"You could've fooled me."

"Hermione." Harry gently touched her shoulder. "We don't doubt your ability to be in control, we're just concerned your ego is getting in the way of logic. Tell someone at the school what's happening."

Hermione took a few moments to mull over the boys' advice before coming to a decision. "Alright. I'll give these kids another chance and stick it out until after the Field Trip this week. And if things get worse after that, then I'm going to Mrs. Fogg."

"Good," said Harry, smiling. "And, hey, keep us informed. Either way, Ron and I are going to visit you one day before your, uh, sentence is up. We'll see if we can't talk some sense into these kids."

Hermione gave a warm smile. "Thanks, you two. I really appreciate it. I'm tired of having to deal with inflated butts and being stuffed into toy bears."

Ron laughed into his fist. "I still can't believe little kids have gotten the drop on you so easily. They sound like they could enjoy a few pointers from Fred and George."

"You haven't _met _these kids, Ron," said Hermione. "But if you bring Fred and George _anywhere _near them, I'll be sure to find a way to get you alone with these little brats."

And so, Hermione went to bed that night with more hope for her situation than she'd had thus far.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: This chapter marks the place in the story where the pranks gradually start getting more extreme. It's also where the M rating slowly starts to come into play, so be prepared. Otherwise, enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 9**

Hermione made the most of what remained of the weekend by enjoying everything she could about being at The Burrow. What made it especially relaxing for her, though, was the simple fact that she was in the company of people who weren't spending every minute plotting out various ways to embarrass her. In fact, she could safely say that this was some of the most fun she'd ever had with Harry and Ron.

Only once following her conversation with them the previous night did the prospect of returning to the kids re-enter Hermione's mind, and it arrived in the form of a letter from Mrs. Fogg. The letter read:

_Ms. Granger,_

_I hope you've enjoyed your first week of teaching. I've already received many compliments from the students themselves and I must say, I'm rather impressed with what I've heard. Keep up the good work._

_Now, the reason I'm sending you this letter concerns the upcoming Tuesday. As with Pet Day last week, we've created a special theme for the day in question, and that theme is Costume Day. If you've looked ahead on your schedule, then this should be of no surprise to you. But rather than having to put you through the trouble of finding a costume at the last minute, and after all the praise from the children, I've decided to be generous and will personally purchase you one this weekend. And it will be waiting for you when you arrive on Tuesday morning. And if the costume ends up being too large or small, then I trust you'll be able to adjust the size as needed._

_I hope to see your positive interaction with the children continue, and enjoy your Sunday._

_Sincerely,_

_Mrs. Fogg_

The letter elicited two reactions from Hermione.

The first was confusion. _The kids were praising me? _she wondered in astonishment. _Why would they do that? _Well, the first idea would be to keep suspicion low. Clearly, the kids took a great amount of pleasure in tormenting Hermione with their pranks, and she couldn't imagine them wanting to abdicate their "toy" anytime soon.

The second, though, was flattery. Even though the kids were lying, it still brought about a certain level of respect from Mrs. Fogg that Hermione was most grateful for, despite it being achieved falsely. Actually, this served to further boost Hermione's confidence about being able to control the kids when the new week started tomorrow. Mrs. Fogg's confidence was nothing to be questioned or scoffed at, considering how Hermione had landed this job, and to do anything but act on it would be mental. Not to mention it had led to the Principal buying Hermione something for Costume Day, saving the teenaged witch some trouble.

So, in a way, the lies of the kids were working in her favor.

This caused Hermione to wake up Monday morning with renewed determination, the kind she normally had for new classes at Hogwarts. She showered and dressed in a casual and tight, yet respectable, white top and jeans. Afterwards, she ate breakfast and found herself standing in front of the Weasleys' fireplace.

"We'll Floo over your suitcase for you," said Harry. He and Ron had come to see her off.

"Thanks," smiled Hermione. "Mum and Dad always head out to work early, so there shouldn't be anyone at home for you to startle."

"Except Crookshanks," chortled Ron. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"By the way, let us know a good time for us to come over and pay a visit," Harry reminded her after giving her a hug.

"Well, judging by the schedule, the earliest you could come would be either Friday or next week. But I'll still keep you informed."

After hugging Ron, Hermione clearly stated her destination and calmly stepped through the green flames that sprang up in response.

At first, Hermione considered stopping by Mrs. Fogg's office to properly thank her for the letter, but her confidence was swelling up too much. She headed straight for her classroom.

It wasn't until she discovered the locked door that Hermione realized that, for once, she had arrived before the kids. Grinning, she took out the key and opened up. She turned on the lights and decided to patiently wait at her desk for the class to show up. And since today was a day involving magic, Hermione was able to conjure up a cup of orange juice, from which she took small sips.

When they arrived, chatting animatedly, the kids looked surprised to see their teacher there, but they quickly regained themselves and put away their packs and filed onto the carpet to sit.

"Good morning," Hermione said politely. She was in such a good mood, that she had decided to forgo a speech today. "I realize you all … had a bit of fun with me last week, but it's a new chapter today. If you've got it in your heads to attempt anything else, then just be warned right now that the consequences _will_ be more serious. Do I make myself clear?"

Hermione didn't raise her voice at all as she said that, but her firm tone of voice was decidedly more effective, because every one of the kids nodded silently with blank expressions on their faces.

"Excellent."

For the next ten minutes, the day got off to a smooth start. Hermione took the reins of the class with minimal effort, and the kids were quietly respectful, in fact unusually so. But Hermione was too preoccupied to pick up on it. When she finally did, it was too late.

It started with a brief, yet sharp, burst of pain in her right buttock which caused her to go, "Ow!"

Hermione rubbed the stinging area while whirling around to face the kids. She narrowed her eyes.

"What was that?" she asked sharply.

"What was what?" Alice said innocently.

"Something just pricked me on the butt! And that body part seems to be of particular interest to you guys!"

"Hermione, honest, we didn't do anything," Miles informed her with conviction. "Maybe you just _thought _you felt something."

Hermione scanned the group's faces carefully, searching for any sign of deception. She ultimately found none and after a moment's thought, decided to wave it off as her mind somehow playing tricks on her.

She turned back to the board and continued writing on it. A minute passed before Hermione felt another sharp prick, only this time on her left buttock.

"Ouch!"

Upon her second twirl to face the kids, Hermione was able to discover the source of the curious pains.

In Tony's right hand was a small stuffed doll, but that wasn't the strange part. The doll was dressed exactly as Hermione was today and sported crudely drawn-on facial features that were decidedly feminine in nature, those mainly being pronounced eyelashes. The top of the doll's head, however, contained a few strands of brown hair that looked familiar to Hermione. One quick glance at a few locks framing her face told her that the hair was indeed hers.

"What -"

"Like the doll?" Tony asked with enthusiasm in his voice. "It took a few minutes to get the clothes right, but then again, we needed to wait and see what you were wearing today. However, the clothes aren't nearly as important as this stuff," he said, stroking the hair on the doll with his finger. "Hair is the only thing that makes this work, other than the right spell, of course. Muggle movies got at least _one _thing right about voodoo."

At the word 'voodoo,' Hermione's stomach dropped and her blood ran cold at once. But instead of voicing her concern or reprimanding Tony in any way, she merely asked, "H-how did you get some of my hair?"

"Oh, _that _was easy!" Tony beamed. "Nobody really has any problem with others cutting off pieces of their hair when the person is knocked out."

Hermione's mind flashed to last Friday, and how the seesaw had knocked her unconscious. She didn't dwell on it too long. "You'll give that here this instant," she stated firmly, extending her right hand.

"Ummmm," Tony said, dragging it out, "no! The fun is just beginning!" The rest of the kids laughed delightedly at this.

"I don't think so!" Hermione grabbed her wand and pulled it out. She aimed it at the doll. "_Accio!_" But the doll didn't budge, so Hermione tried again. The doll still remained immobile in Tony's hands.

"Oh, that won't work," Tony chuckled. "We put a spell over the doll to make sure you can't get your hands on it."

He jerked the Hermione doll's right arm so sharply that it caused her wand to go flying out of her grip.

Hermione grunted and took a step forward, but that's where things began to escalate.

Of their own accord, Hermione's arms bent inward so that the tips of her fingers were touching both of her armpits. Next, her legs started to kick out to the sides, but she still remained where she stood.

"Chicken Dance!" proclaimed Aggy excitedly.

With an expression of horror on her face, Hermione's "chicken wing" arms began to flap up and down furiously, as her legs continued the in-and-out movements. Said movements for Hermione's limbs were the doing of both Tony and Alice as they worked the Hermione doll. Tony was handling her arms while Alice took care of the legs.

Since there was no music playing, Hermione looked like a fool as she danced, but then again, she imagined that was the whole point. The uproarious laughter of the kids confirmed it even more.

"Stop doing this!" Hermione yelled.

"Oh, you want to stop, do you?" shouted Tony. "Well, if you insist!"

The dancing abruptly stopped, and Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Benjamin had gotten up, walked over behind Hermione's desk, and was now pushing her chair until it was right behind her.

"Hermione, why are you shaking your butt at us?" asked Tony reproachfully.

"I'm not -"

But Tony suddenly twisted the doll around and bent down the upper body. The real Hermione followed suit, and her hands now clutched both arms of the chair.

"Miles," Tony addressed his friend, "your Mum is a Muggle, right? Isn't there a Muggle song about shaking butts?"

"Yeah there is!" exclaimed Miles. "It's called _Shake Your Booty!"_

Tony smirked. "Well then, Hermione, as the Muggles say … shake your booty!"

Unwillingly, Hermione did indeed shake her booty. It started out simply going side to side, slow at first, but it gradually sped up. Pretty soon, her butt began going up and down to continuously make a "U" shape, before moving onto a "V."

By now, most of the kids were on the floor from laughing so hard, holding their stomachs. Hermione's cheeks had flushed bright red.

"Now, now, Hermione," said Tony, his voice cracking with laughter, "it's not polite to do that with your butt in front of others! I think someone deserves a spanking!"

"NO!" Hermione screamed, instantly recalling her last spanking from these kids.

"Let's make it interesting this time." All of Tony's classmates nodded in agreement.

_Interesting? _Hermione soon found out what he meant there by way of her own right arm being raised out as her butt stuck out just slightly more. _This ISN'T happening!_

But sure enough, it was, and the palm of Hermione's hand was brought down on her very own butt with such force, that it genuinely surprised her. And she spanked herself again. And again. And again. And again. Hermione tried desperately to regain control of her body, but the curse made her completely vulnerable to the kids' will.

After the twentieth spank, it stopped, but by that time, Hermione's confidence had long since been spanked out of her.

Hermione was suddenly jerked upright and turned back around.

"Enough!" she barked.

"No, don't think so," Tony replied. "Let's see how _athletic _you are."

Before Hermione could say anything else, her left leg extended out with enough momentum that it made her go straight down onto the carpet.

"She's doing a split!" giggled Aggy.

True enough, Hermione had landed on the carpet as a professional gymnast would, with her legs stretched straight out horizontally. The first thought to enter Hermione's head was that she had no idea she was so flexible. The second was, _Merlin, this hurts!_

"Make her do flips!" cried Aggy next.

After being pulled back up on two feet as if by an invisible hand, Hermione barely had time to compose herself before her new physical act was initiated. Quite nimbly, she fell forward while her arms extended in front of her. She had enough momentum from the move that when her palms touched down on the floor, her lower body was propelled up in an arc that allowed her to complete a full back flip.

Amidst laughter and applause, Hermione only had a few moments to catch her breath before she partook in another back flip. But unlike the first one, where she had a graceful landing, Hermione instead landed with her legs flying across a table, causing her to sprawl spread-eagle on its surface.

"Spin her!" shouted Barrin. "Just like at the Mini Ministry!"

_Oh, no._

It started slow. The table surface was so slick and smooth that Hermione was able to spin on top of it easily. The spinning gradually became faster, and memories of the spinning top prank from the Mini Ministry came at the forefront of her thoughts. Hermione didn't scream, for she feared that if she opened her mouth, what was making her stomach queasy would come flying out.

When she finally stopped, with the room still spinning around her, Hermione found herself pulled back through the air until she was in front of the kids again. Her sight was still blurred slightly and she felt unsteady, but eventually, the feeling began to subside.

"Thirsty, Hermione?" asked Tony.

Benjamin now brought over the rest of Hermione's orange juice and rather like a puppet, Hermione took it from his grasp.

"No, I'm not!" spat Hermione through gritted teeth. "And if you don't hand over that doll -"

"Let's just get rid of that drink, then!"

Hermione's arm was manipulated so that the orange juice was splashed all over her crotch, and since her jeans today were lightly colored, the stain was easy to see.

"Ha ha!" cried Lori. "Hermione peed her pa-ants!"

"Well," said Tony. "In that case, why don't you just take your clothes off, then, Hermione?"

With that sentence, things instantly got worse for her.

"If you -"

Hermione's warning was cut off by her plopping down into the chair and kicking off her shoes. Next, she was forced to bend down and slowly use her index finger to slip both her socks off. She then froze there, dread climbing inside her.

Tony had paused, clearly relishing the moment and anticipation.

"Do it! Do it!" his classmates chanted.

"No! Don't even -"

Hermione was cut off when she straightened up and her hands went to the bottom of her top, fingers closing around it. As she was forced to slowly raise the shirt up over her head, Hermione wished that she was anywhere but here.

There was an emphasized cheer when her light blue bra was revealed, and as she tossed the shirt away, Hermione's cheeks turned scarlet. Of course, these were kids, so any sexual undertone wasn't really an issue, however, Hermione was still highly embarrassed to strip in front of them. To kids, underwear was still one of the top forms of humor and judging by the class's reaction, seeing Hermione take her clothes off was a hoot.

Hermione was brought back to her current situation when her hands were brought up to cup her breasts. She wondered what exactly the kids' intention was until she wiggled her boobs around, albeit briefly.

Her hands then traveled down to the button on her pants, as Hermione knew they inevitably would. The least she could do was close her eyes as her fingers went down and undid the zipper. Many whoops erupted and the laughter reached its crescendo as she pulled her pants down from her hips. The body parts in question seemed to develop a mind of their own, which wasn't far from the truth. They swayed in a way that would have been seductive to any boy Hermione's age.

While her pants were still being slid down, Hermione twisted around so that her butt was once more facing the kids. It was next poked out slightly, with her hips still moving, and served to further emphasize the humor of it all to the kids. To top it all off, her hand was once again used to spank herself.

Hermione only stopped swaying her hips after her pants had been kicked away and she had been turned back around. Ashamedly, she opened her eyes to be met with the sight of every kid on their back, shaking violently with laughter. Some were even pounding the floor with their fists.

"That was fun, wasn't it?" asked Tony as he wiped tears from his eyes.

Hermione, in disbelief that she'd somehow ended up in her underwear for the second time in front of these kids, alternated between fuming and blushing, but they interlaced a few times. "You little monsters!"

"Anyway, thanks for the laughs. Feel free to get dressed."

Too angry and embarrassed to form sentences longer than three words, Hermione felt an invisible weight being lifted from her as Tony pocketed the doll.

"But of course, we'll hang onto this. Just in case."

Breathing hard, and knowing that was a subtle threat to keep her quiet, Hermione yanked up her clothes from the ground and stormed off to the bathroom. She felt one more prick on her butt along the way, but she let it roll off.

As she was getting dressed again, Hermione hoped that Harry and Ron's visit would come early. But then she looked at her reflection in the mirror, gritted her teeth and said, "Not yet."

There was still some fight left in her.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: The pranks continue to get more and more evil. You've been warned. ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

The rest of Monday passed without further incident, which took Hermione by surprise. Not that she was complaining, but she reasoned that the whole voodoo affair was more than enough to satisfy the kids' hunger for pranks. In fact, the kids were very cooperative after Hermione had emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed. At first, she'd been tempted to lay into the kids again, but the sight of her voodoo counterpart bulging in Tony's pocket made her hold her tongue. The worst that the insubordination got for the rest of the day was a few sly remarks about Hermione in her underwear from time to time.

"Alright, alright, keep your shirt on," said Barrin after Hermione had to ask him to talk more quietly for the third time.

"Anybody need this blue crayon? Y'know, like the color of Hermione's underwear today?" That particular one came from Miles during their picture-drawing session.

But the real kicker came from the puppeteer himself, Tony, after Hermione dropped the chalk she was writing with and bent over to pick it up. "Careful, Hermione, or you might give us a _light _blue moon!" This comment, of course, got the biggest laughter.

_I guess I can't expect them to be COMPLETELY well-behaved._

Despite the embarrassment, Hermione trudged on through the day. The kids got better when it came time for the first play rehearsal, and they got through it without Hermione's dignity sustaining any kind of hit. It was also at the play rehearsal that both Hermione's fears about it were nearly quashed completely, and it was decided that a few more kids were needed for the roles.

"I'll talk to Mrs. Fogg and try to get some of my own students to join in," informed Ms. Winters. Hermione was grateful for this, as it was another task she was spared the trouble of having to complete herself. Picking out something for Costume Day had been the first.

And Costume Day arrived before Hermione knew it.

Unlike the day before, however, the kids had all beat Hermione in getting to the classroom first. She chalked it up to the theme for the day exciting them a great deal.

The kids' costumes were what Hermione had expected. Most of the boys were dressed as members of various Quidditch teams, each a different color ranging from red to blue to green, with only Miles standing out as what could most readily be described as a Dementor.

_How fitting, _Hermione thought snidely.

Alice wore a lime green dress that had sparkles scattered over it with wings on the back, clearly a fairy. Aggy and Lori, by comparison, weren't so cliché in their outfits. Lori was dressed as a pirate, complete with boots, a vest and a big hat with a feather tucked into the brim. Lori had on an outfit like a Muggle cowboy, or in this case, a cow_girl. _Apparently, a few of these kids were better-versed in Muggle topics than Hermione thought. Either that or one of them with Muggle parentage had suggested the costumes to their friends.

_The costumes still suit them well, _Hermione thought sardonically.

Compared to the kids' lavish appearances, Hermione's attire of a sky blue blouse and jeans was extraordinarily regular. But if Mrs. Fogg was to be believed, and Hermione didn't know why she couldn't be, then that was soon to change.

"Where's _your _costume, Hermione?" asked Lori pointedly. "Teachers have to dress up for Costume Day, too!"

"Well," Hermione replied, "Principal Fogg bought my costume, and it should be in here waiting for me."

"Good!" exclaimed Aggy. "We can't wait to see it!"

"I can't wait, either."

Hermione crossed the room and reached her desk, where she immediately noticed a yellow piece of paper on the center. Written on the paper were the words, "Costume is in the bottom drawer." So, with a small grin of gratitude, Hermione squatted down and pulled open the drawer. Inside was a brown paper bag, which she took out and placed on top of the note.

If Hermione had noticed the eager expressions from her class, she would most likely have been more hesitant in reaching inside the bag and pulling out what it contained. But she hadn't, and consequently, she was overcome with shock when she got a good look at what was clutched in her hand.

It was a costume, sure enough, but certainly _not _the sort Hermione had been expecting.

The costume consisted of two simple clothing items, neither of which sat well with Hermione: a bright pink t-shirt and an enlarged diaper. In short, it was a baby costume.

_What in the bloody hell?_

_This _was the costume that Mrs. Fogg had deemed appropriate for her? She expected Hermione to wear _this _while teaching in a classroom? Was this her idea of some sort of joke –

Then it dawned on Hermione.

Still horrified, she looked up from the costume to notice that the kids were giggling profusely. So the note from Mrs. Fogg over the weekend had really been from _them, _just so they could get Hermione to wear this ridiculous, not to mention skimpy, outfit today_._

Was there no low the kids would sink to in order to humiliate her? Hermione held the answer in her very hands.

"Well?" giggled Alice. "Aren't you going to put it on?"

It took a few seconds for Hermione to regain her composure and formulate a response. "No. This is utterly ridiculous! I'm _not _putting this on!" She flung the costume down onto the desk.

"Oh, I think you will," said Tony slyly, a wicked grin on his face.

"And what makes you say that?" spat Hermione. "You have no authority over what I wear!"

"No," Tony replied evenly as he reached into his pocket to extricate something. "But we do have _this!_" He held up the voodoo doll.

The defiance in Hermione's face quickly evaporated.

"Now," continued Alice confidently, "you're going to change into that costume, or _we're _going to do it for you." She indicated the doll in her friend's hands.

Hermione didn't fancy another incident like the one yesterday, not one bit. The prospect of being dressed as a baby in front of these immature brats was equally unappealing, although if she _had _to pick the lesser of two evils, being dressed as a baby was at least more dignified than being manipulated like a puppet.

That's what Hermione kept telling herself as she sullenly dragged herself into the bathroom and took off all her clothes, except for her bra. Then, sucking in her pride, she pulled the pink shirt over her head before pulling the diaper up onto her legs. When she was done, Hermione gave herself a once-over in the mirror.

The shirt came to stop just above her bellybutton, leaving a nicely sized ring of skin visible, not to mention it hugged her chest tightly. Maybe she should have taken off her bra, too. The diaper, while not exactly underwear, still had the appearance of it, though baggier. Her legs were shown off a lot as a result. All in all, Hermione felt like a giant.

"You _never _breathe a word of this to anyone," she told herself through gnarled teeth.

Hermione left her clothes folded and stored in a counter above the sink and stormed out of the bathroom, too preoccupied to notice that Sammy had been standing against the wall beside the bathroom door. He swiftly slipped to the side once his teacher was clear and quickly turned the inside lock on the door. Sammy had stepped back out of the door's path before it fully closed, and rejoined his classmates by the time Hermione had returned to the head of the room.

Still in a huff, Hermione placed her wand on the desk, since there wasn't currently anywhere to stow it on her person, and regarded the kids with hands on her hips. The pose had a more humorous effect than she'd intended.

"What are those you lot are eating?" She'd just noticed a plastic box that the kids had swarmed around, in addition to the smudges of blue around their mouths.

"Cupcakes!" Alice declared. "My mum made them for us to have today. She even made you one, Hermione!"

Hermione's arms became crossed as she arched an eyebrow. "I'm not sure you should be eating them so early." The last thing these kids needed was a sugar rush.

"Don't worry, there's still enough left for after lunch." Alice reached into the box to scoop up one of the treats. "Here, try one. They're _really _good!"

"Ah, I think I'll wait until lunch, thank you."

"Come _on!" _pleaded Alice. "We're all having one. My mum even made them to show you how much she likes what you're doing with us."

"Really?" Hermione asked as her mood lightened considerably.

"Yes!"

For a minute, Hermione forgot she was wearing a diaper and strutted over to Alice, taking the cupcake out of her hand. "Well, it _does _look delicious."

"Oh, it is!" smiled Alice. "It was made with a _special _recipe."

Since Hermione's attention was focused solely on the cupcake, she failed to see the grin that Alice shared with her friends. "Oh, alright," she said. "I don't see the harm in a quick snack to start the day off."

Hermione took her first bite. "Mmmm, it _is _good!" She finished off the rest in three more bites, then licked the residue off her fingers. "I'll have to write your mother a thank you note, Alice."

Alice was just smiling widely.

It was when Hermione was back at the board, her back turned to the children, that she first felt it. A curious sensation in her stomach that signified something bad was about to happen.

"Oh," Hermione put the chalk down and cupped her stomach as rumbling could be heard. "Oh, my…" She wheeled around. "Excuse me, I have to, um, well…"

The feeling in her stomach was getting stronger, so she sprinted towards the bathroom as fast as she could. Hermione closed her hand around the doorknob and tried to turn it, only to be met with resistance. Panic rising in her, she feverishly continued her attempts, but to no avail. By then, the feeling in Hermione's stomach had become a stirring sensation … the kind of stirring sensation that required use of a toilet.

Obviously, for whatever reason, the bathroom door wasn't yielding any success, so Hermione turned her attention to the main door, through which she could go racing to the public bathroom. And she didn't care right now whether anyone else saw her in a diaper or not; she _needed _to relieve herself.

But the main door wouldn't budge either.

_Come on! Open! OPEN!_

As she tugged furiously, Hermione wasn't aware that the kids had all formed a semi-circle around her and were chuckling in amusement.

"Having trouble, Hermione?" Barrin asked in a tone normally reserved for toddlers.

Hermione jerked upright, her stomach still growling, and turned to face her tormentors as if in slow motion. "The cupcake," she breathed. "What was in it?" Her voice shook.

"Oh," said Alice airily, "just some laxatives." It sounded like she was doing nothing more than giving Hermione the time.

Those words made Hermione go rigid, but not just with shock. It was as if the laxatives had become more fast-acting after she'd heard they were in her system.

"Uh oh," laughed Barrin as he observed Hermione's face. "I know _that _look. I think somebody's about to have an _accident._"

Hermione wanted nothing more than to be able to curse these kids into oblivion, but her ability to speak was stalled by what was happening with her "down below." All of a sudden, her outfit was more appropriate than ever, because she was doing something that all babies do: she was going to the bathroom on herself, and it _wasn't _Number One.

A soft gasp was all that escaped her lips as the process ended, and Hermione was left with something soft and squishy in her diaper.

_I'm going to MURDER these incessant pests! _Hermione thought as the kids erupted into hoots and hollers. At the same time, a pungent smell invaded the air.

"Hermione pooped her pa-ants!" Lori shouted.

"More like her _diaper!_" corrected Aggy.

Seething by this point, Hermione lost all sense of logic momentarily and moved to grab Alice, but the little girl produced Hermione's wand from behind her back and pointed it at her teacher.

"_Infantrada!" _the prankster yelled.

A light pink light enveloped Hermione momentarily, causing her to stop in her tracks. But the light soon disappeared, and Hermione moved to continue advancing towards Alice.

However, after two steps, Hermione's legs began to feel like jelly, and she soon stumbled to the ground, where she landed on all fours. Amidst more laughter, Hermione attempted to pull herself back up, but found her legs to still be quite unsupportive.

_Wait, what was that spell Alice hit me with? _she thought desperately.

Hermione meant to say, "What did you do to me?" but it instead came out as, "Gaab de oo oo ba?" That made her freeze in terror, and the kids laughed even harder. "Baaagaaa!"

_Infantrada! The spell that makes people behave like babies!_

Obviously, Hermione's ability to think straight was unaltered, but her speech and balance on two legs took the blunt of it.

"Look, girls!" proclaimed Alice. "We have a baby to take care of!"

Alice, Aggy and Lori all let out a collective and mocking "Awwwww!" as they surrounded their incapacitated instructor.

As if Hermione's predicament wasn't humiliating enough, she could feel the laxatives doing their work in her stomach again and before she knew it, she'd had another accident.

"Well, girls, first things first," said Lori with maniacal pleasure. "The baby needs changing!"

It was at this moment when all the boys decided to retreat over to the play area and leave the girls to mainly handle this prank. After all, it _had _been the girls' idea in the first place.

While Alice used Hermione's wand to conjure up a new diaper, Aggy and Lori had set about turning Hermione onto her back and undoing her current one. Hermione struggled all the way, prompting Alice to temporarily immobilize her with the wand.

"Stop squirming, Hermione. Unless you _want _to go around with a soiled diaper!"

Hermione had no choice but to let the girls do their work. The diaper was unhitched from her hips and opened, whereby the stinky smell became stronger. She saw Alice wave the wand, which made the smell, as well as most of the feeling around Hermione's butt, vanish.

"We need powder, Alice," said Aggy. "By the way, is she done going to the bathroom on herself?"

Alice handed Aggy a bottle of baby powder. "We only put enough laxatives in for two times, and that looked like two times, so yes."

Aggy applied the powder while Alice and Lori lifted Hermione's legs up just a bit. The whole time, Hermione's face was bright red from both anger and embarrassment, but she held her tongue for now.

"Hold on," said Lori. "Shouldn't we check to make sure that our little Hermione doesn't have a fever? We don't want her getting sick, do we?"

"Good thinking, Lori!" Alice stepped forth with something thin in her hand, and it wasn't until she was directly over Hermione that it was clear what it was: a thermometer. "But why don't we do it like in the _old _days? Turn her over!"

_No! No, no, no, no, no!_

Hermione couldn't do anything to resist as she was turned over again, the powder still fresh on her derriere.

"Hey!" shouted Barrin suddenly. "Can I do this part?"

"Sure, Barrin! Come on over!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione spied Barrin race over to Alice and get handed the thermometer. By now, Hermione was in too much of a panic to make out what Alice told him, but she was able to discern the word, "gently."

But the sensation Hermione felt mere seconds later was anything _but _gentle, as she threw her head back and gave a cry upon the sudden insertion. It seemed to go on forever. At this point, she wanted nothing more than to be covered with an Invisibility Cloak.

"Normal temperature," Barrin concluded. "No need to worry." Hermione felt the thermometer being removed with a jerking motion.

Over the next minute or so, the new diaper was put on Hermione, and Aggy even patted her on the butt once it was done.

"There you go," she said. "Nice and clean."

Hermione then felt the immobility spell being lifted from her, and that's when she made a split-second decision to run, or rather _crawl, _for it. She got up on her hands and knees and crawled as fast as she could, to where, she didn't know. All she knew was that she wanted to get as far away from these kids as possible.

She hadn't made it very far before the three girls blocked her path, hands on their hips.

"Oh, no you don't, Missy!" said Alice sternly. "You're not going anywhere!"

"Gaboo -"

Hermione started to make sounds of protest, but was cut off when Alice sat down cross-legged and pulled her forward so that Hermione was facing up and resting in Alice's lap. Aggy and Lori, meanwhile, sat on Hermione's legs to better hold her down.

"I think you need your bottle to help you calm down," said Alice. She stroked Hermione's hair soothingly as possible while Miles walked over with a plastic bottle in his hand. Hermione could see that the bottle was indeed full of milk.

Miles handed Alice the bottle and returned to where the boys were watching everything play out as if they were sport spectators.

"Open up," instructed Alice.

"Baabu -"

Hermione's jibberish of resistance was cut short by way of Alice stuffing the mouthpiece of the bottle in between the older witch's lips. With eyes reflecting great malice, Hermione was forced to drink the milk, and do so by sucking it in through the tip.

"_That's _a good girl!" Alice exclaimed in a placating tone. She even resorted to tickling Hermione's stomach as a way of adding insult to injury. This made Hermione spit out some of the milk.

"Here, let me clean that up for you." Alice was handed a white cloth and a pacifier, which she promptly replaced with the bottle tip in Hermione's mouth. "Suck on this while I do that."

Hermione did as she was told, but aggressively and with a look in her eyes that said she'd find a way to enact retribution once she was no longer under the influence of the baby spell. It wasn't so much that she _wanted _to suck it, more like her lips were inexorably drawn to it.

_Some sort of spell, _she mused.

Alice paid her no mind, though, as she mopped up the excess milk contentedly, even humming a lullaby.

"Since we gave her a drink," suggested Aggy, "why don't we feed her, too?"

"Get her chair!" ordered Lori.

Benjamin and Sammy carried out the act and when the chair had been pushed over to where the girls all were, the two boys helped in hauling Hermione up so that she was sitting in it, still sucking on her pacifier. With a wave of the wand, it became a highchair, sans the long legs. During this, Aggy had retrieved a paper bag, separate from her lunch box, from her cubbyhole and brought it over. She reached into the bag and extracted a plastic container of applesauce, which Lori took the top off of, and stuck a spoon into.

The applesauce was placed on the tabletop of the highchair and Alice took control of the spoon, scooping up a good amount of the food. She pulled the pacifier out of Hermione's mouth.

"Open up, Hermione!" she exclaimed. "Let the airpwane in!" Alice purposely mispronounced the word as a form of baby talk.

Even though it made her look even sillier, Hermione mashed her lips together and jerked her head away from the spoon, making "No!" movements while moaning in protest.

"Come on, it tastes good!"

But Hermione continued to refuse.

It soon got to the point where Benjamin and Sammy had to hold her head still while Aggy and Lori parted her lips in order to allow Alice to slip the food into her mouth. Hermione could do nothing except swallow it all until the container had been emptied.

Not long after that, Hermione felt a wave of drowsiness overtake her.

"Awww, it looks like somebody's getting sleepy," said Aggy. "You know what that means. Naptime."

That was the last thing Hermione heard before her eyes drooped shut and she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

When she awoke, Hermione could first deduce that her body was in a most awkward position. The next thing she became aware of was that the pacifier was still stuffed into her mouth, serving as a gag. But it wasn't too deeply lodged that she couldn't spit it out, so she did just that.

Once she had adjusted more from the leftover sleepiness, Hermione took full stock of where she was: in the bathroom with the door closed, but that wasn't the worst of it. She was also lying in a crib, one that was obviously much too big for her, because her arms and legs were hanging over the sides of it. Not only that, but they were tied to the rails as well. However, her wand was clutched in her right hand.

Hermione groaned and shook her head, and that was when she noticed she still wearing the baby outfit, which now had a yellow sticky note on her front. From her position, she could read the message on it: "Had a GREAT day! See you tomorrow for the Field Trip!"

Frantically, Hermione checked the bathroom clock. It read 5:05, meaning that the day was over.

"What the …?"

The fact that she no longer spoke in baby talk escaped Hermione as she worked everything out in her head. The conclusion she came to was that there had obviously been sedatives or something of the like in the applesauce she'd been force-fed, which had knocked her out for the rest of the day.

Hermione didn't even try to figure out exactly _how _the kids had gone an entire day teacher-less without anyone else noticing. She just focused on using her wand to loosen the bonds so she could climb out of the crib.

Her clothes, thankfully, were still where she'd left them, and she got out of the diaper and t-shirt and back into her regular attire as fast as she was able to.

It wasn't humiliation Hermione felt as a result of the kids' latest prank. It was white, hot anger.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I hope everyone celebrating Thanksgiving had a great time yesterday, and as a Black Friday gift, here's Chapter 11! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

The entrance hall to the school was filled with the sound of eager kindergarteners, all of whom were milling about as their teachers attempted to gather them into orderly lines. There was one class, however, who didn't need constant supervision and curiously, it was Hermione's class. They all stood patiently, one after another, in front of one of the fireplaces, their expressions alternating down the line between silent irritation and brooding annoyance. Hermione stood at the head of the line, routinely flashing her gaze between her kids and all the others, a look of cool control plastered on her face.

She wasn't taken aback by her kids' behavior, given what had happened in the classroom right before they'd come here. After a sternly-delivered vow that any more pranks would result in more direct and severe punishments, as well as a cancellation of playtime when regular class resumed on Friday, the kids' collective mood went from one of excitement and satisfaction to one of gloom. It served to make them more cooperative, thus far, so any feelings of sympathy, not that she'd feel any after yesterday, were rendered moot on Hermione's part. In fact, she took joy in this deflation of the kids' egos, as it allowed her a kind of peace and quiet from them that had been unprecedented until now.

Not that Hermione was naïve enough to believe this change would be permanent, but she was prepared to do whatever she had to if the kids tried to get smart during this field trip. It was high time to show these little scoundrels who was Boss.

"May I please have your attention, everyone?" Mrs. Fogg's voice was magnified over the chatter, causing it to effectively cease and desist. The principal held the tip of her wand against her neck. "Thank you. Now, then, this field trip to the Magical Artifacts Museum is not just a treat for you children, but also a reflection upon this school. That said, I expect each and every one of you to be on your _best _behavior whilst there, today _and _tomorrow. Am I understood?"

Hermione threw a pointed look at her class as all the kids in the hall chorused, "Yes, Mrs. Fogg!" Her class all gave extra glum nods.

"Good," smiled Mrs. Fogg. "Since there are three separate classes attending this trip, and since the Museum is too large to cover in one day, each class will be taking individual tours at the same time. Again, I stress being on good behavior because if you're not, it's straight back here with you. And you wouldn't want to miss out on this fun experience, would you?"

"No," was the collective answer.

"Alright, then. Well, with all that said, I leave your teachers to take it from here." Mrs. Fogg lowered her wand and began to maneuver in and out of the students as the lines were finally formed completely. As she passed Hermione, Mrs. Fogg gave the sixteen year-old witch a friendly smile and reaffirming pat on the shoulder.

If Hermione had her way, she wouldn't allow her class to attend this field trip. The events of yesterday alone cemented her reasoning for that. But her ever-reliable sense of logic had told her that there was no hard evidence of the kids' mischief to Mrs. Fogg or any of the other teachers to justify that decision. It would just make Hermione seem unreasonably cruel. And apart from word of her many pranked states over the past few days, that was the last thing that Hermione wanted drifting back to the parents and Ms. Stats. So in the end, it was either attend the trip as if nothing was wrong or risk ruining her public image again.

_Pick your battles, _Hermione told herself.

Just then, all of the fireplaces simultaneously sparked to life in brilliant emerald flashes, prompting Hermione and all the other teachers to give each of their classes one final look before turning around and taking a giant step through the green fire.

A second later, Hermione was standing in a room with a curiously fascinating layout.

The walls, while made of brick, were each colored differently and brightly enough that it looked as if spotlights were being shown down upon them, but the ceiling contained nothing except a well-sized skylight. The floor was polished marble, and the sounds of footsteps click-clacking upon it reverberated off the multicolored walls, causing the noise to mix with the hum of quiet talking.

There _were, _however, low-hanging spotlights illuminating objects of various sizes and shapes that stood on pedestals around the room. The one commonality between each of these objects was that none of them looked to be from the past twenty years, at least. The architecture of the location invited comparisons to the Ministry of Magic, but the overall layout reminded Hermione of a basic Muggle museum.

Outbursts of "Ooooooh!" and "Aaaaaaah!" from behind Hermione signaled that all the kids had made it through safe and sound.

"If everyone could gather round us, please?"

The question came from a middle-aged witch with red hair and a purple jacket and matching skirt. Two other similarly-dressed and aged women stood on either side of her. There was a nametag on the witch who spoke which read "Gwen."

"That's it, yes," said Gwen as everybody from the school gathered in a semi-circle around the three women. "Right then, my name is Gwen and this is Charlotte on my right, and Penelope on my left." Charlotte and Penelope each smiled courteously after their introductions. "We're part of the Museum staff, and would kindly like to welcome all you fine children and teachers to the Magical Artifacts Museum. Normally, we would escort you on your tours, but seeing as how you have your teachers with you, that duty will be left in their capable hands. But, teachers, we will now give each of you short pamphlets containing basic information on all the major exhibits, as well as a map of the Museum."

Charlotte and Penelope did so as their associate did the talking. Hermione accepted hers with a friendly smile and a nod.

"In addition," continued Gwen, "the Museum has taken the liberty to label each map with a different route for each class to follow. Each route is labeled a different color: red, orange or green."

Hermione checked her map to see a green-colored route.

"Where the color stops indicates where your tour will end today, and tomorrow, you will be given a new map with a newly-colored route. Now, there is _one _cardinal rule to abide by whilst here: if a sign says not to touch, then don't touch whatever it is. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." It was the third all-in-one answer the kids had to give so far today.

"Lovely. Well, with that said, we'll leave you lot in the care of your teachers and we hope that everybody enjoys themselves!"

The three purple pamphlet women exited their company, leaving Hermione, the other teachers, and all the kids alone.

Hermione glanced over at Ms. Winters and Mrs. McGregor, the other kindergarten teacher, and they each shared a nod that silently said, "Let's get to it."

"Alright, class," Hermione announced, "we'd better get going! And let's not forget to be on our _best behavior._" She mustered the most serious expression she could to accompany those last words, and it must have worked, because the kids blanched.

With a smile that combined satisfaction and superiority, Hermione lifted the bottom of her turquoise blouse slightly to slip the pamphlet into one of her back pockets after having studied their first stop. She led her group forward with a confident march.

They went through a hallway made of shining blue bricks that broke off from the Main Hall and came to an exhibit featuring Egyptian-era artifacts. The exhibit itself was curved, culminating in a dome-shaped ceiling at the top. The source of light inside was not just from the spotlights hanging over each artifact on display, but also torches in different colors that matched the colors of the walls that they were mounted on. Hermione had to admit, the combination of the modern and the past helped create an appropriate atmosphere.

A total of eight other people were currently observing this exhibit. Hermione turned around to face her class, who had all gathered behind her, some of their eyes already lingering on the artifacts.

"Alright," said Hermione, "you're allowed to go over and see whatever you like, but _don't touch anything _you're not supposed to. Clear?"

The kids nodded and almost instantly dispersed in various directions.

Hermione sighed. _So far, so good. _She took the pamphlet out of her pocket and walked over to a collection of what looked like beetles. Upon closer inspection, Hermione found out via the plaque in front of the display that these were small weapons used by Egyptian wizards to burrow into locked areas and disperse effective amounts of gas that would render enemies unconscious.

_Impressive._

Hermione was just about to move on to the next display when she felt a tugging at her sleeve, which turned out to be Miles.

"What is it, Miles?"

"Can you please come over and tell us about one of these thing-a-ma-bobs?"

Hermione couldn't resist smirking at his substitute for 'artifact.' "Sure."

Miles guided his teacher over to where the kids had all congregated around a particular display. The kids parted to let Hermione through, revealing what looked like a big golden bracelet with encrusted jewels dotting its surface.

"We can't read what it says," informed Miles.

Hermione stepped closer to the plaque and scanned through what it said. Her initial assessment of it being a bracelet was basically correct. "Well, it says here that this is a special kind of bracelet used by the Aurors of the time. They would put it on their wrist and think of a spell in their minds that would activate a strong kind of armor to come out of the bracelet, covering their whole bodies. It was used as protection from spells during battle."

"Hey, Hermione, come look at this!" shouted Aggy from a display a considerable distance away. Hermione hadn't even noticed her parting company.

She straightened herself up and moved to make her way over to where Aggy was, but immediately found her legs unable to keep up. As a result, Hermione went falling face-first onto the ground. Luckily, she'd managed to turn her head during the fall so that her right cheek took the blunt of the impact.

"Ooof!"

Hermione waited until the throbbing in her face receded before she slowly lifted her upper half with her arms and flipped over so that she was in a sitting position. Everyone in the exhibit was staring at her; those not with her group had a mixture of concern and confusion on their faces, and the kids were hiding smiles behind their hands. Shaking her head slightly in order to clear it, Hermione's gaze traveled down to her feet.

Seeing her shoelaces tied together initiated a reaction of anger. She shot her head back up to glare at her group.

"I wonder how _that _happened," gloated Miles.

"Stay right there," Hermione intoned dangerously.

Without another word, she undid the knot between her shoes and readjusted the laces accordingly. She hauled herself to her feet, brushed herself off and stomped over to the little boy, giving him a livid stare that quickly wiped the smile from his face.

"Come here," Hermione snarled. "I warned you not to pull anything, but I guess I have to take more _extreme _measures to get my point across!" She clutched Miles' collar and dragged him over to a bench that was pushed up against the left wall.

"Wh-wh-what are going to do?" Miles asked frightfully.

"Something I should've been doing all along!" Hermione sat down on the bench and jerked Miles so that he fell across her lap. "If you lot insist on fighting me every step of the way, then you should know that I can fight back!"

By now, the only ones still watching were the rest of the kids. The adults had uncomfortably turned their attention back to the artifacts.

"No! I'm sorry!" pleaded Miles.

"Too late, young man!"

Hermione raised her left palm into the air and brought it down sharply against Miles' backside five times. Miles yelped in pain with every one. His friends could only look on in pity except for Barrin, who was gazing at the scene with bubbling anger as memories of his own spanking were reflected in his eyes. He leant over to Alice and Aggy and whispered something to them. Once he was finished, the girls nodded in understanding.

"Learnt your lesson yet?" Hermione coldly asked Miles, who was sniffling loudly.

The humiliated boy nodded glumly.

"Good."

Hermione let him up, and Miles slowly walked back to his friends, his hands rubbing his backside lightly. Barrin put a sympathetic hand on Miles' shoulder once he had joined his company. Hermione stood before her class, arms crossed authoritatively.

"Is there anybody else who needs disciplining?"

The kids all shook their heads instantly.

As she glanced back up in satisfaction, Hermione noticed that the exhibit's other occupants were giving her dirty looks. This surprised her, because they had seen what Miles had just done to her. _Surely, they can see my reasoning, right? _But then it struck Hermione just how needlessly extreme the spanking would seem to people unaware of the other forms of torment she'd already suffered at the hands of these kids.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something in her defense, but it was at that same moment when Barrin, Aggy and Alice all made a mad dash for something behind Hermione. The teenage witch whirled around just in time to see the kids' retreating forms disappear through a doorway that broke off into another section of the Egyptian exhibit.

_Rotten kids, _thought Hermione as she followed them without a second thought.

The doorway led into a part of the exhibit devoted to mummies. Opened sarcophagi occupied by bandaged bodies lined the walls. Hermione jumped in fear when a few of them actually moved, but she quickly realized that they were controlled movements, all for show as a result of some sort of animation spell.

There was no sign of the three kids anywhere.

"Barrin! Aggy! Alice!" Hermione called out. "Come out this instant!"

The sudden sound of the door to the sub-chamber closing caused Hermione to jump and wheel around. She briefly considered going over and trying to open it, but if one of those three pranksters had closed the door, then that's probably what they _wanted _her to do. Hermione decided to press on.

Honestly, this whole environment of the waking dead creeped her out, and the faster she could find the hooligans, the better.

Hermione turned back around and walked deeper into the center of the room. It was after a few steps that she noticed something. She was now standing on something that hadn't been there before. It was a medium-sized rusted circle with absolutely no identifying marks on it whatsoever.

_Where did this come from? _The answer quickly became obvious.

Cursing her inattentiveness, Hermione made to get off the circle, but found her feet held there by some invisible force. She grunted and struggled with all her might to lift her feet just a few inches off the rusted surface, but it did no good.

"Damnit," Hermione muttered under her breath.

After huffing exasperatedly, she looked up to see Barrin, Aggy and Alice standing in front of her, side by side. All of them were giving her superior smiles.

"So, you want to fight back, do you?" asked Barrin. "Well, in that case, we can just take things to the next level."

"You _will _get me off of whatever this is!" snarled Hermione.

"Not quite yet," sneered Aggy. "You being as smart as you are, I'm surprised you don't know what this is, Hermione."

"And _you _do?"

"Oh, yes." Aggy stepped forward and squatted down in front of the circle. Her finger found a small lever jutting out from the rim. "But rather than _tell _you, I'm going to _show _you!" Aggy flipped the switch.

Hermione froze in fear as the circle vibrated beneath her feet for a few seconds before going still again. "Hah," Hermione snorted. "Maybe there's a reason this artifact is in a _museum._"

But her renewed confidence was instantly depleted when she felt a pressure encircle her ankles. Hermione looked down to discover that pale white bandages had sprung forth from the rim of the circle and had wrapped themselves around the very bottom of her legs. She gazed back up in horror at Aggy.

"Well, we _are _in a Mummy Room!" the girl exclaimed.

Hermione's face remained contorted in shock as the surface of the circle slowly began to rotate while the bandages simultaneously continued to snake out of the rim. The spinning, and the wrapping, gradually got faster and faster, making Hermione scream. Pretty soon, the tightness of the bandages had enveloped Hermione's entire body up to her neck, but as the dizziness reached its peak, Hermione found her field of vision obstructed by the musty cloths. She could still breathe, but the stench was strong.

The spinning finally stopped.

Once it did, Hermione was thankful that her feet were stuck to this "mummifying circle." But that soon changed, as she felt small pairs of hands pushing her legs off of it.

With her eyes covered, Hermione was left to stumble around blindly while stretching her arms out in front of her like an actual mummy. The door to the room must have reopened, because she never slammed into it. Instead, she kept walking.

Eventually, Hermione heard an outcry of, "Look! A mummy!" followed by a mix of reactions from what she assumed to be the crowd in the Egyptian exhibit. "Don't worry, I'll get it!" said the same voice, which sounded like Sammy.

Hermione found her progress stopped temporarily, as well as a tug at her bandages. In the midst of all this, she could discern chaotic sounds that must have been tourists scrambling for safety. When she was able to move again, she found herself spinning uncontrollably. At the same time, she could feel the bandages getting unwrapped.

Once that was all over, Hermione landed on the floor in a daze, directly in front of a pair of legs behind a purple skirt. Hermione glanced up to see Gwen staring down at her with a stern expression that complimented the hands on her hips.

"I—I can explain…"

* * *

As it turned out, Gwen had scoffed at Hermione's claims of the kids wrapping her up, and thus spent a good twenty minutes lecturing her on the importance of the museum's rules. Gwen ended her speech with a heated warning to keep the children under control.

And that was precisely Hermione's intention as she sat at one of the outdoor tables in the Museum Park, finishing up her lunch. Her class, along with the others, was doing the same at the rest of the tables, their confidence obviously renewed. Hermione could only pray for the end of the day to come as quickly as possible.

She took hold of her empty lunch tray and got up from her seat to deposit the contents into the garbage can nearby. However, she heard bursts of laughter follow in her wake during the short trek.

Fearing the worst, Hermione quickly dumped her trash into the can and whirled around to see every kid in the area laughing at her. The other teachers, though, were standing by the trash can at the opposite end of the courtyard, too engaged in conversation to pay attention. Hermione gave herself a once-over to try and see what about her the kids were finding so funny, but spotted nothing.

_My back was turned._

Cautiously, Hermione peeked over her shoulder to the reflective glass walls of the museum. Because her reflection was so vivid, she could quickly find the source of the humor, but the effect was obviously lost on her.

Planted directly over her butt was a rectangular piece of paper, and much like the "Kick Me" sign from her first day of teaching, this one had big and bold writing on it as well. The sign read, "SMELLY," with the word broken in half so that the first three letters hung over Hermione's left butt cheek, and the other three over her right.

She desperately tugged at the sign in order to peel it off, but found it to be stuck on her pants pretty good. Too overcome with humility to get angry or ponder how the sign had gotten onto her butt in the first place, Hermione was just grateful to still have her lunch tray in her grasp. As her cheeks flushed red, she used the tray as a shield to cover her rear and hastily made her way inside to the nearest bathroom.

As Hermione raced away, Barrin leaned in close to Benjamin at their table. "Nice work, Benjamin! She didn't even notice the sign was in her seat! Anyway, this just gave me another idea for later…"

The sign had only been held to her pants by tape, so it hadn't taken long for Hermione to dispose of it in the bathroom. By the time she had re-emerged into the courtyard, the classes were being gathered up to continue their tours.

"I'll deal with this later," she threatened under her breath as her kids formed their line.

* * *

"But it looks so pretty!" squealed Lori.

"I don't care," snapped Hermione. "The sign says not to touch the amber. So _follow the rules. _Now, can I get back to telling you about this?"

Hermione and the kids were now in their final exhibit of the day, one devoted to Amber, a substance that hardened quickly around anything it covered and preserved them in a state of suspended animation. Extinct breeds of animals were the main attraction of this exhibit, and Hermione and the children were grouped around a small piece of amber that contained an old mosquito.

There was nobody else in there with them, and the fact that this was the last stop of the day's tour instilled Hermione with a bit of hope that the kids had worn themselves out. They hadn't caused her any more trouble since the sign incident. But Hermione wouldn't consider herself safe again until she was back at home.

"As I was saying," she said as she brought the pamphlet back up, refusing to turn her back to the kids again, "Amber was mainly used by wizards in times of war as a way to avoid getting caught by the enemy. As long as they had the Amber device in their grasp at the time, the Amber would be impenetrable for a good number of years. But it soon took on a simpler application when Amber was used as a way of preserving elements of the past for future generations, such as this mosquito."

"So, the Amber could break easier after so many years?" asked Sammy.

"Yes."

"And what's _that?" _inquired Miles, pointing at an object on an adjacent pedestal that looked like a perfume pouch.

"A pheromone," answered Hermione after consulting the pamphlet. The kids looked confused. "Ah, it's like a mist that smells interesting to someone or something. In this case, it's for this mosquito here. It would go after whatever had been sprayed with it." Because Hermione was still reading, she missed Miles sharing a devious smirk with Barrin, who nodded at him.

"I want to get a better look at the bug!" declared Miles, whose resolve to prank had been strengthened after the morning. He got up as close as he could to the cube of Amber and reached out, coming too close to it for Hermione's liking.

"Miles! The sign says _not _to touch!" Hermione had to turn away from her group to deal with him, giving Barrin the perfect opportunity.

As Hermione put her arms around Miles, who put up a gallant struggle, Barrin swiped the pheromone pouch from its spot. Hermione's backside was left vulnerable, just as Barrin hoped it would be.

He aimed the nozzle directly at his target and squeezed the release valve. A puff of violet smoke wafted over to Hermione's butt and lingered there before evaporating.

Phase One was complete.

Miles, while squirming around in Hermione's arms, took note of Barrin's thumbs-up and immediately lashed out with his foot in such a way that it came into contact with the cube of Amber containing the mosquito.

For a few seconds, time seemed to stand still as everyone froze to observe the cube as it fell off of its perch. The kids all looked on in maniac glee while Hermione's face was one of shock and dread. Finally, with a cracking sound that seemed to be magnified tenfold in the dead silence, the Amber shattered to pieces. The mosquito lay motionless in the shards.

Hermione whirled around, her hair flapping dangerously with the movement. _"What. Have. You. Done?"_

Rather than appearing surprised at the sudden event, the kids instead looked smug and satisfied, which set off alarms in Hermione's mind. After seeing the pheromone sprayer clutched in Barrin's hand, the sound of soft buzzing made Hermione's blood run cold. Grimacing as she did so, she slowly turned around to be met with the sight of the mosquito gradually rising from the Amber remnants. And despite herself, Hermione couldn't help letting out a scream as the implications of this situation came crashing down on her.

The kids started laughing hard as Hermione darted away from the mosquito as quickly as her legs would carry her. Over the laughter, Hermione could make out the sound of buzzing wings. In her haste, she'd dropped the pamphlet on the floor.

"The sting of this mosquito is said to feel like a bee sting," she heard Barrin read aloud.

And sure enough, Hermione felt the first sting on her rear a few seconds later, something indeed reminiscent of one from the yellow and black-striped bug.

"Yeow!" She nearly jumped a few inches into the air as a result of the shock, but she just kept running.

_Wait a minute … my wand!_

Hermione swiftly extracted her wand while still running, and in a movement that would have made Harry and Ron proud, turned around mid-stride while leveling her weapon.

"_Petrificus Totalus!" _she exclaimed.

But the mosquito seemed unaffected by the spell, as it just kept flying furiously towards its prey. Hermione shifted aside the feelings of surprise and confusion as she resumed her previous position, her legs still working hard.

"And it says here that no spells can stop them!" cried Barrin as he and his fellow classmates' laughter intensified.

_Just great!_

By now, the mosquito was chasing Hermione around the exhibit in circles, thus adding to the cartoonish nature of the whole thing. As she kept running, she couldn't help but wonder how it was that she and the kids remained the only people in this room the entire time.

"Listen to this, Hermione!" shouted Barrin. "This mosquito is good for only two bites before it gets too full, so that means he has one bite left!"

Hermione grunted, already feeling winded, but lightened up a little when she suddenly took stock of something. One of the Amber cubes, which held an extinct underwater creature, was sitting atop a pedestal in the center of a small fountain with flowing water.

_Insects can't go underwater!_

With a renewed hope, and swallowing her pride at the same time, Hermione raced over to the fountain and slowed her stride enough so that when she jumped in with a great splash, her hitting the bottom wouldn't hurt so bad.

The noises of laughing and buzzing instantly died out under the surface, and as the water soaked Hermione to the skin, she held her breath half a minute before being forced to resurface.

As she gulped in air, Hermione hurriedly took stock of everything. The kids were laughing even harder now, with some even pointing at her new appearance, but the one thing she _didn't _hear was the buzzing of the mosquito. Breathing a small sigh of relief, Hermione brushed her drenched hair behind her ears and made her way to the edge of the fountain so that she could climb out. Given the state of her clothes, they obviously clung tightly to her form as she lay face-down on the fountain's rim, one foot out of the water and the other still in. This left her butt upturned, and a rather enticing target, at that.

It was the sudden buzzing from behind that made Hermione freeze.

She didn't have time to react before the second mosquito bite popped up on her derriere.

"Ouch!" she yelped in surprise, and ultimately defeat.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

_Day Two, here we go._

Hermione _had _intended to go directly to Mrs. Fogg yesterday upon arriving back at the school, only to find that the principal was away from the premises on important business. That just meant she'd have to meet with her this afternoon, and Hermione had made sure before departing for the museum that Mrs. Fogg would indeed still be there this time. She would just have to survive whatever the kids threw her way today, and she was certain more mayhem was to come. Her kids _were _the Terrible Ten, after all. The best Hermione could do was be ready for the first sign of trouble.

The map for today had an orange route, which resumed the tour almost immediately where the one yesterday had ended, with the exhibit adjacent to the Amber one. The memories of yesterday's incidents came back to Hermione as she and the class walked by the exhibits, and it was all she could do not to shudder at the thought of them. The kids, however, made no effort to conceal their giggles as they clearly remembered the same things. Rather than tell them off, though, Hermione elected to simply clutch the cuffs of her brown and tan-striped shirt in anger until they reached their first new exhibit. It was one devoted to Victorian-Era artifacts.

The main attraction of this exhibit was a collection of simple-looking wooden boxes. Most of them were opened, with the appearance of a coffin, in addition to them being behind protective layers of glass. Upon seeing them, Hermione darkly mused that all that was missing were vampires rising up from inside the boxes.

"Look!" exclaimed Benjamin. "There's one out in the open!"

He was right. At the far end of the room, sitting on what looked to be a miniature stage with red curtains draped behind it, was another one of these wooden boxes. It was perched on a table and like the ones on display in the glass cases, the top had been removed.

The kids all immediately ran over, stopping in front of the rope that cordoned it off from crowds.

_Watch them like a hawk, _Hermione told herself sternly before following in their wake. Spanking Miles yesterday had, in hindsight, seemed to cause more damage than help. Thus, Hermione started to wonder if there was _anything _she could do to punish these rascals that wouldn't rebound negatively on her.

"What does it say, Hermione?" asked Aggy as she pointed at the information plaque. "What is it?"

Hermione stepped up to the plaque and positioned herself so that she could read from it while being aware of any movements the kids might make. "It's called a Magician's Box. During this time period, Muggle magic stage shows had reached a high in popularity, and one night, an actual wizard was in the audience of one these shows. He was so impressed by a box that seemingly separated a person's body into pieces, that he began work on a box that could achieve the same results. He succeeded, but rather than deciding to implement it as a torture device, the wizard instead marketed it as a joke product. This was due to the person inside the box feeling no pain once their body had been separated into different pieces. The enchantment on the box still holds strong to this day. Once someone gets inside, all it takes is simply pushing sections of the box away from each other."

"Wicked!" remarked Torics, momentarily reminding Hermione of Ron. "I wish we could see how it works!"

"Well, nobody's supposed to touch it, so we can't find out." Hermione crossed her arms and glared evenly at her group. At the same time, she noticed that no one else had entered the exhibit yet.

"Maybe there's a doll or a test dummy inside of it," suggested Lori, standing on tiptoe in hopes of getting a better look at the inside of the box.

"It wouldn't matter anyw-"

"I'll go check!" declared Torics, cutting off Hermione. He darted underneath the rope separating the stage from them and climbed the stairs leading onto the stage.

"TORICS! Get back here!" Before going after him, Hermione shot the other kids a sharp glance. "Nobody move!" She didn't wait to see their reaction as she stepped over the velvet rope.

If anybody, especially someone on the Museum staff, were to walk in right now and see Torics so blatantly breaking the rules, it would be more trouble for Hermione than for him. And that's the _last _thing she wanted, or needed, given the incidents the day before. By the time Hermione had reached the little boy, he was peering inside the box.

Hermione came up behind him and firmly took him by the shoulders. "You are in _big trouble, _young man!"

Torics just kept staring into the empty box. "No … nothing in here," he said offhandedly.

From the new vantage point, Hermione could plainly see slots for the occupant's arms and legs to rest in, rather than them dangling out in mid-air.

"Come back down before someone comes in and sees you up here!" Hermione attempted to drag him away, but Torics grabbed tightly onto the side of the box.

"But we want to see how this works!" he protested.

"So we'll just use you as our little _test dummy_," said Tony snidely from behind Hermione. She hadn't even noticed him creep up onstage.

There was no time for any words of protest before Hermione felt someone wrap their arms around her legs and someone else pin her own arms to her back. Retrieving a roll of duct tape from his back pocket, Torics hopped up onto the clear space of the table holding the box, undoing a bit of it and tearing it off. He promptly placed it firmly over Hermione's mouth, patting it down to make sure it was on nice and tight.

Torics jumped down so that he was out of the way. "Push her in!" he ordered.

Hermione felt a few pairs of small hands, one of them strategically placed on her butt, push her forcefully down towards the open box. All the while, she had one thought on her mind: _Nooooo!_

She landed face-down inside, her body fitting into all the nooks and crannies.

"Quick! Seal her up!" she heard Torics say.

She made noises of dissent through the tape, but they went unheeded, because Hermione was trapped fully in the box moments later. Everything suddenly went dark.

_They are SO dead!_

Sounds of scurrying and shuffling came from around the box and pretty soon, Hermione felt the box being stood up straight.

"Wow, this is very light!" said Lori from outside.

"Yeah, even with someone like Hermione inside," agreed Miles, "whose butt looks like it'd be big enough to make it heavy on its' own!"

_Hey! My butt HAS filled out a little more, but it's not THAT big! Wait – why am I arguing like this?_

The kids chuckled at the joke nonetheless.

"Oh, look at this!" said Alice.

Hermione heard a soft scraping noise, and suddenly found her line of vision opened up. Through the new opening, she had a rectangular view of the exhibit, and there were _still _no other people there.

"Hi!" Alice waved at Hermione pleasantly through the peep hole.

"Alice, go stand guard by the door and make sure no one comes in yet," said Torics from somewhere behind Hermione. Through her view, Hermione saw Alice nod and race over to the doorway. "Now comes the fun part!" Torics' voice bubbled with giddiness.

Alice nodded and ran to her post.

"Wow, this box looks like a real human body!" proclaimed Bruno. "I didn't notice 'til now."

"And, look, there are slides on each part that open up so you can see everything better," observed Barrin.

_Well, what a relief! _Hermione thought bitterly. She felt a sudden tapping against the headpiece.

"Alright, Hermione," said Torics delightedly, "are you ready to be split up?"

Hermione made a noise of protest through the duct tape, but wasn't sure if it carried outside the wood.

"Here we go!"

Panic set in as Hermione started to struggle with futility, but just like the innards of the giant teddy bear, there wasn't much room to move around.

A beam of light appeared where the box broke off into its space for the occupant's left arm, signifying that the kids had removed that particular limb. Pure adrenaline instantly kicked in, with Hermione's mind telling her to scream in pain, but despite the circumstances, it felt as if her arm was still attached and not currently being carried off to Merlin-knew-where. It was then that Hermione remembered how nobody felt excruciating pain while in this box, leading her to reason that the designer must have been bloody good at his job.

_Relax, just relax._

But Hermione found it harder and harder to do so when each body part was being removed as easily as one would pull apart warm pieces of bread. The other comparison that was brought to mind was that Muggle game where the object was to remove small wooden blocks from a tower without toppling it. After her left arm came her right, and then the kids moved down to her legs. The removal of her lower appendages caused what remained of Hermione to plop down a few inches on the table, making her feel like she'd been shoved down to sit in a chair. Not once did blood spurt from her separated limbs.

After her extremities were pulled away, Hermione tried flexing her fingers and wiggling her toes, but felt nothing. She imagined that if the movements had worked, though, then the kids would've said something to alert her to it.

_This is SO weird_, the young witch thought. She got angrier by the second as the kids continued. _Those evil … those wicked … I'm going to KILL them!_

"Do you see anyone yet, Alice?" asked Torics.

"There are a few people in the hall," replied Alice. "But none of them are coming this way now. Still, hurry up."

"Right. Just _one more _thing."

Hermione didn't have long to wonder what Torics was talking about. First, she heard the slide on the compartment holding her waist slide open, already setting off alarm bells in her head. Second, Hermione felt a grubby little pair of hands come around her hips and find her belt buckle. They proceeded to undo it before moving on to unfasten her pants button and zipper.

Hermione tried protesting as the situation escalated, but her words were muffled by the tape. She went as far as trying to wriggle her body in an attempt to move away from those hands, but the box kept her from that goal. All the while, she repeated one phrase over and over in her head: _Not my butt, not my butt! _

That did nothing, however, to quell the extremely uncomfortable feeling Hermione felt as that pair of hands tugged at the fabric of both her pants and underwear until her bare bottom was in full, unobstructed view. Her cheeks flushed red, embarrassment setting in at the fact that her rear was exposed to them yet again, and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Really, it looks like our butt inflation prank wasn't _that _necessary," chuckled Miles.

If Hermione's mouth hadn't been covered by duct tape, she would've retorted with, "My butt is none of your business," but all she could do was growl incoherently. And she had to admit deep down that she was rather happy that her body had developed so well recently. What she objected to was it being used to humiliate her.

"Make sure _that _can be seen well!" ordered Torics about Hermione's separated butt, which was carried away someplace. "And keep taking her pants off in the leg boxes. Her shoes, as well!" Hermione could only assume his orders were carried out, as she couldn't feel if they were.

_This is just a bad dream, right? I mean, this is too weird not to be a dream. Wake up! Come on, WAKE UP!_

"People are coming!" declared Alice as she retreated back into the room.

"Okay," said Torics, "as long as we keep the rest of her hidden, nobody should suspect anything. Everyone just act normal. Are the other boxes open?"

"Yes," answered Benjamin. "The rest of her is in plain sight!"

Just then, through her viewing hole, Hermione saw a small crowd of tourists wandering into the exhibit. Out of desperation, Hermione racked her mind for a spell to perform nonverbally that would fix everything in a flash, but found herself too shocked to think coherently. The only thing on her mind right now was, _Get me out of here!_

Outside, the kids had positioned themselves casually by a few of the stands in the exhibit, but still close enough to where they had placed Hermione's body parts on display. There was a certain symmetry to the placement. Each of her now-bare legs were the first things to be noticed upon looking at the surroundings. They stood atop the first two pedestals lining the door. Hermione's arms, the shirt sleeves on them rolled all the way up, were angled on the next two pedestals so that they were directed to what sat near the head of the room on a table that hadn't been there before. Serving as the centerpiece, of sorts, was Hermione's "butt in a box," sitting in plain view in front of the rope that cut the rest of her off from public access as if such a thing was one of the most common elements in the world. Beyond that crude display were the boxes that concealed Hermione's head and torso.

The first person to notice that oddity was a conservatively-dressed woman of mid-age who gasped loudly and put her hand against the base of her throat in surprise. From her vantage point, Hermione could make out the affronted expression on the woman's face.

"Is that a … a … _bottom?" _Clearly, she considered herself above using the term 'butt.'

"Yeah, it's a _butt!" _giggled a little boy whom Hermione didn't recognize. He laughed into his palm and pointed, his body shaking from the muffled guffaws. There were more contained outbursts of laughter following this.

Hermione felt her cheeks blush even more as she spied a young man who looked to be in his early 20's come up for a closer look.

"Quite rotund, isn't it?" he remarked with a smirk.

Despite the situation, offense briefly overcame Hermione. _Could anyone NOT comment on my butt - _Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden poking sensation on her right leg. _So, I can feel when others touch me, but I can't move my limbs myself. Bloody brilliant!_

"These are _incredibly _life-like!" proclaimed the gray-haired man who was poking Hermione's leg. "Are they … real?"

"No!" Torics suddenly spoke up. As he stepped forth from where he had been standing, Hermione could see that he held the pamphlet that had been in her pants. "Someone on the Museum staff said that they're parts of a test dummy that the museum uses to show how these boxes work."

_Liar! _Hermione began to make desperate noises through the tape, hoping against hope that someone, _anyone, _would hear her. But nobody seemed to.

"Really?" asked the man, who had the distinguished air of a professor. "Well, they did a remarkable job with flesh tone, not to mention muscle structure." He reached out and grazed Hermione's leg with his fingers, even squeezing slightly, as he said that last part. Not that she could, given the restrictions of the box, but it made her want to lash out with her foot.

"I've heard that the makers of this dummy spent a long time trying to get that stuff right," lied Torics again.

"Ingenious," said the man as he stroked his chin.

With the man's back turned, Torics shook in silent laughter. His classmates were all doing the same.

Hermione's thoughts then went to her right hand, the fingers of which were being flexed in and out of a fist. "I could _swear _this was real," admired the brunette teenage girl who was behind the movements. "Though I could do _without _the sight of a naked arse."

_The feeling's mutual, _Hermione thought acidly.

"I think it's funny!" said a raven-haired young boy who was standing directly in front of said body part, admiring it a bit too closely for Hermione's liking. He began studying the box itself. "I don't see any sign that says not to touch it, so I wonder if we _can?_"

_No, you bloody well can't! Don't even THINK about it, you little brat! _Hermione made more angry noises through the duct tape.

"Of course you can!" said Miles, who came over to join the other boy. At the same time, Hermione felt what seemed like a stick of some sort whack against her left calf. "We've already touched it, and no one said anything. So, go ahead!"

_Azkaban might as well get a cell ready, because I'll soon be arrested for ten counts of murder!_

It started out with the boy merely poking at the center of Hermione's right butt cheek with his index finger. In-between the pokes, Hermione felt someone tickling her left foot, and it was the weirdest feeling to want to wiggle her toes in response, but not be able to.

The butt poking quickly turned into pinching, and Hermione let out high-pitched sounds of protests that carried through the tape, but not out into the exhibit.

By now, Hermione's class was almost keeling over from laughing so hard. They were starting to earn stares from the other tourists.

"Andrew!" It was the voice of the woman who had first noticed Hermione's butt. "That's not appropriate! Get back over here!"

"Just let me do one more thing, Mum!"

_What is he talking ab-_

Andrew smacked the center of Hermione's butt with a stinging force that caused her to yelp through the tape.

"Andrew!"

"That was fun!" proclaimed Andrew before he went over to rejoin his mother. This left Miles alone with the "butt in a box," and he turned to where he knew Hermione could see him and shot her a wicked grin which clearly said, "Payback time."

"Anyone else wanna give this big bottom a few whacks? There's said to be a spell on it that can turn the cheeks red when smacked!"

Like clockwork, a queue of eager kids, none of whom Hermione recognized from the school, formed.

_NO!_

"Give it your best shot!" Miles smirked, stepping aside and allowing the first kid to step forward and give Hermione's butt his best smack.

_Damn these kids!_


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: SO sorry for such the long wait. I just got sidetracked by so many things, and computer problems kept my co-author out of reach. But the good news is we're back, and ready to continue on with the rest of this story! :D**

* * *

**Chapter 13**

"Ouch! Ow! Hey, stop pulling so hard!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I causing you _discomfort or humiliation?_" Hermione spat at Torics, not bothering to lower her voice even one decibel. "Far be it for me to do something so _unpleasant!_"

After the utterly humiliating incident with the separating box, which left Hermione with a battered pride and stinging butt, the kids had waited until all tourists had filed out of the exhibit before piecing her back together.

She now had the main perpetrator in a talon-like grip by his right ear, and was now dragging him through the crowd milling about in the museum's Main Hall without any regard for the stares of concern she was receiving. Following behind in their teacher's wake was the rest of the class, any trace of accomplishment or superiority expertly hidden behind masks of fear. It was enough to convince all the onlookers that _they _were the victims and Hermione was the Wicked Witch, while being effective enough to placate Hermione. Unbeknownst to her, the kids still had one more trick left up their sleeve.

Upon reaching a large and unoccupied bench, Hermione forcefully shoved Torics down to sit on it. One livid glare from her told the rest of the children to follow suit, which they did.

"Have no respect for authority, do you?" Hermione snarled as she crossed her arms and began to pace back and forth in front of the ten brats. "Take pleasure in degrading and humiliating those who have power over you? Well, playtime is _over!_" She stopped in her tracks, now facing every class member directly. "We are going back to the school _immediately. _And once there, you lot are going to take part in something that causes _me _pleasure: seeing no-good troublemakers suffer the consequences of going against authority! If that entails even more spankings by my hand, then so be it!"

If a ring of fire had suddenly popped up around Hermione at the conclusion of her speech, then the kids wouldn't have been surprised. They were practically quivering under the young witch's glare, which now looked powerful enough to go straight through their stomachs.

"Miss Granger?"

The rather confused tone with which her name was spoken caused Hermione to look away from the kids while consciously attempting to lighten her expression. She was met with the sight of one of the other teachers from her hall whom she recognized, Mrs. Hopkins. In turn, the other teachers were grouped around Mrs. Hopkins, and all of them had looks ranging from shock to reproach trained on Hermione.

"What exactly is going on here?"

Hermione took a brief breath and kept her composure. "I'm glad you asked, Mrs. Hopkins. My class has publicly demonstrated a serious lack of respect not only for me, but this museum as well. They've thoroughly humiliated me in ways I would choose not to go into detail about and as a result, it's only fair that I revoke their right to enjoy the rest of this field trip and take them back to the classroom, where they'll receive a just punishment."

Mrs. Hopkins' gaze alternated between Hermione and the kids in question. "What is it that they did?"

"Pulled a highly immature and unsavory prank on me. The latest in a long line, actually."

"And … you have proof of this?"

The question caught Hermione off-guard, and she had to take a quick moment to get over her bewilderment. "What?"

"Of course she doesn't!" piped up Barrin. "She's bonkers! All we did was talk with some other people while she went off to the loo!"

Mrs. Hopkins raised her eyebrow. "You left them alone? Unsupervised?"

"What?" Hermione's eyes widened in shock as her nostrils flared in anger. "Of course I didn't! Those little … _children _are lying through their teeth!"

"And why would they do that?"

"To make me look bad! That's _all _they've been trying to do since I first took this job! I would never leave them unsupervised, because I'm fully aware of the responsibilities of being a teacher!"

As Hermione was fuming, with her attention away from the kids, Mrs. Hopkins' eyes fleetingly focused on something other than the ranting teenager. "Well, it looks like you're neglecting those responsibilities. Three of your group just ran off."

Without a word, Hermione spun around to see just who those three had been. "Lori! Benjamin! Sammy! Get back here!"

She spotted the backs of those retreating three blend into the crowd, and Hermione took off after them with a "Don't let the others out of your sight!" directed at Mrs. Hopkins before she did.

Once Hermione was out of earshot, Mrs. Hopkins turned to her colleagues. "Remind me again why Mrs. Fogg gave the substitute teacher position to her?" They all shared bemused head shakes.

While Hermione was determinedly attempting to catch up with the three rascals, the full implication of Mrs. Hopkins asking for proof of the kids' shenanigans dawned on her. By asking such a question, Mrs. Hopkins was really inquiring after the effectiveness of Hermione as a teacher and care taker for these children. Was she trying to imply that Hermione was unsuited for the job, or that for some reason, the other teachers in the school resented the fact that a mere teenager shared a status that they themselves had worked for years in order to attain? Either way, the conclusion was the same: that Hermione wasn't exactly the most welcome presence in the school.

_Well, I'll just have to fix that, won't I?_

By now, Hermione had bypassed the crowd of visitors in her pursuit for the three "escapees," which allowed her to get a clear view of Sammy as he turned into an open doorway at the far end of the hallway. Too consumed by a mixture of anger and determination to heed any warning, Hermione followed in the boy's footsteps until she found herself in the exhibit that lay beyond that doorway.

This particular exhibit was the barest that Hermione had encountered yet. The main attraction of it was sitting by itself in the dead center of the room, safeguarded by a lone security rope. What the rope was guarding looked like just a small stage with an iron bar held above it by two other bars of the same material. Chairs lined the walls, giving the impression that whatever artifact was on display in here was one that invited a show-like atmosphere.

It was then that Hermione noticed Benjamin, who was standing in front of the artifact, his back turned to her, and looking down beneath the raised iron bar.

"Benjamin!" Hermione barked as she began advancing closer to him and the artifact. "Get over here!" She quickly glanced at the surroundings. "Where are Lori and Sammy?" Hermione stopped right in front of the security rope.

Benjamin, though, acted like he didn't hear her. He kept looking down at whatever fascinated him so.

Hermione shouted his name again, but still he didn't move.

Sighing with a great deal of contempt, Hermione had no choice but to duck under the rope and come up directly behind Benjamin, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I said, where are Lori and Sa -"

"NOW!" shouted Benjamin.

In one quick movement, too quick for Hermione to react at all, Benjamin twisted around while grabbing both of Hermione's wrists. Hermione was so taken aback by this, that she wasn't able to do anything to stop either Lori or Sammy, who darted out from behind whatever the artifact was and clenched their hands firmly on her ankles.

"Hey! What the -"

Benjamin managed to extract a length of rope from up his sleeve while retaining his grip on his teacher, who started struggling furiously. Even as Hermione wriggled around so violently that it caused her to topple over on her left side, Benjamin didn't miss a beat in securing the rope around her wrists. One hurried glance over her shoulder showed Hermione that Lori and Sammy were doing the same with her ankles.

"Up you get!" said Benjamin as he and his friends hauled her back up and dragged their teacher back over to the bar.

"YOU GUYS ARE IN EVEN BIGGER TROUBLE NOW!" Hermione roared.

"Yeah, yeah, what else is new?" remarked Lori sarcastically.

As Benjamin went about securing Hermione's bound wrists to the iron bar, she was able to see that it was more of a pole. Once Benjamin was done with her wrists, he dashed around the pole to help his friends. Seconds later, Hermione knew _exactly _what he was helping them do: lift her legs up to secure her ankles to the opposite end of the pole.

Hermione gasped slightly, due to the movement pitching her forward awkwardly until she was suspended above what looked like sliding doors. With a sinking stomach, she guessed what this particular artifact did, given her current position.

Her suspicions were confirmed when Benjamin pulled on a lever at the edge of the stage that caused the small sliding doors to part, revealing what was held beneath them.

It was a copious collection of a thick, gray substance with what looked to be a gooey consistency.

_Just great, _thought Hermione as she groaned out loud.

She shot Benjamin a sharp look as the crafty kid enveloped his fingers over another lever.

"You always look so funny covered in icky stuff," he snickered before pulling on that lever as well.

Hermione had no time to protest as the pole was slightly lowered until her face was inches from the surface of the gray goo. There was a moment or two of dreadful anticipation as she just hung there, the pole unmoving and the kids wide-eyed with glee.

Finally, Hermione just had to speak her mind. "Hah. Looks like this thing is a little rus-"

As it turned out, the artifact _wasn't _rusty at all. Hermione was cut off when the pole began to rotate around in a complete circle. In so doing, she was forced to shut both her mouth and eyes when she found herself completely submerged in the gunk for a few seconds.

During those few seconds, two sensations swept over Hermione. The first was one of coldness, which was a result of the slime not being warm in the slightest. The second was one that harkened back to the incident with the cauldron in the classroom and the bubble machine at the Mini Ministry. Both situations made her feel like The Creature from the Black Lagoon.

_Ew, ew, ew! _was all that ran through Hermione's head when she momentarily resurfaced. She could see the three kids doubled over in silent laughter, and she would've spat a nasty remark or threat their way, had it not been for the fact that within seconds, she was back in the slime.

However, in the split-second before she was rotated back in, Hermione could see that the goo had changed colors. Whereas it had been gray on the first cycle, it was now pale green. In that state, it reminded Hermione of the slime that Muggle game shows would use to douse contestants, or victims, in. And between the new color and the "audience" she had, she couldn't help but feel like one of those people.

Indeed, on emerging the second time from the slime pit, the shade of slop all over her body was green. The slime was changing colors of its own accord.

"An old torture device," Benjamin spoke up as Hermione was turned up and over yet again.

"I'd say it gets the job done, wouldn't you?" giggled Lori before Hermione was dunked back into the slime, which was now bright red.

It went that way for a few more minutes, and the other colors Hermione went through during that time were orange, yellow, violet, pink and blue. By then, Hermione had just resigned herself to the situation out of exhaustion, so Sammy hissing the words, "Quick! Someone's coming!" was like music to her ears.

The pole stopped before Hermione could be plunged into the now magenta goo, and she sensed the kids untying her before she dropped and rolled onto the ground, leaving a trail of slime in her wake.

Hermione kept rolling until an extended foot stopped her. For the second time in two days, Hermione found herself on the floor and looking up into the stern eyes of Gwen, the tour guide witch.

Gwen took in Hermione's messy appearance in a look that would've made Snape proud. "Was I not clear yesterday?" she snarled. "Such a flagrant disregard for our rules requires not only a lifetime ban, but also a forceful expulsion from these grounds, I think."

The kids, who were now in the doorway, kept on laughing silently. Although, they had to part in order to make way for the two burly men in uniform-like robes who marched into the room and scooped Hermione up without a word. With one hand under each of her arms, the guards forcefully guided Hermione back out into the Main Hall, where all eyes instantly fixed upon the slimy girl being dragged along like a criminal.

Those eyes included the other teachers and students from the school.

Hermione, too shell-shocked to do much of anything, remained limp as the guards stepped in front of one of the roaring fireplaces. Then, to make an even bigger show out of the whole ordeal, they also grabbed Hermione by the ankles and lifted her up into the air.

"Disrespectful teenagers," one of the men growled before they tossed Hermione through the green flames, where she landed with a sloppy thud on the floor of the school's Entrance Hall on the other side.

Fortunately, there was nobody around to see this, not even Mrs. Fogg. So, Hermione just plopped her head down on her right arm in defeat, facedown on the floor.

Almost instantly, she heard the sounds of more people filtering in from the museum. But she didn't need the fresh round of giggling to tell her that it was her class.

"Well," she heard Barrin exclaim delightedly, "that was a fun trip, wasn't it?"


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Hermione considered herself incredibly fortunate to have been able to make the trek back to the classroom and not have her slime-covered appearance catch the attention of anybody but her class, who were trailing close behind her. The fact that they made no efforts to cover up their laughs of victory made her fear that _someone _would poke their head out from a doorway in curiosity, but no such thing happened.

The only thing she concerned herself with upon reaching their room was walking straight into the bathroom, closing the door behind her, and stripping out of her messy attire so as to scrub away at the griminess in the shower. A small voice in Hermione's head told her how stupid it was to leave the kids unattended, but she reasoned that the time spent cleaning herself would allow her anger to reach the breaking point. In turn, it would mean she'd able to formulate a way to channel it in the most effective way possible.

After claiming a spare set of clothes she had stowed away after the cauldron incident, which she secretly kept in a cabinet underneath the sink, Hermione got dressed and let her slimy garments soak. By then, she'd determined a method of letting her anger out.

With as calm and composed an air she could muster, Hermione exited the bathroom and made a beeline for her desk without so much as acknowledging any of the kids. But this was only _after _she had opened the door and let it swing out by itself, in case anything had been set up above it. There was no bucket that fell from overhead or anything that shot into the open doorway.

Contrary to her expectations, the children were all sitting at the tables conversing with each other, and not setting up their latest torture device. When Hermione walked through the room, they all fell silent, their eyes tracking her every move. Hermione remained quiet herself, even after she'd taken her seat with a brief test of its surface beforehand, and leveled an almost peaceful stare at the kids.

It went on like this for about ten minutes.

Finally, Alice buckled under the pressure and spoke up. "Hermione, are -"

"No talking," Hermione said suddenly, without a trace of anger in her voice. "Anybody who talks, or moves, without my permission will have their free time privelages taken away for the rest of the week. If anybody thinks I'm joking, go ahead and try. I dare you."

Her tone of voice had the desired effect, because once she'd issued the threat, not one of the kids spoke or even looked like they were thinking about doing so.

It stayed that way for the rest of the day, and since the time was currently half-past one in the afternoon, it was for a good hour and a half. And during those ninety minutes, it was clearly a struggle for all of the kids to remain as they were, afraid that if they even flinched involuntarily, it would mean serious trouble.

So, for them, the knock on the door which signified the arrival of the parents was a godsend for the kids. After a subtle nod from Hermione which signaled that their sentence was over, the kids all jumped out of their seats appreciatively and ran over to give their moms and dads huge hugs.

"Was the museum just as much fun today?" asked Benjamin's father as he ruffled his son's hair.

"Yeah," replied Benjamin before shooting Hermione a furtive look. "But it got kind of boring near the end."

The parents all made their children wave good-bye to Hermione, not picking up on the mixture of expressions ranging from fearful to resentful as they did. Hermione returned the gesture, putting on a face that used pleasant friendliness to mask her feeling of victory.

Once everyone had gone, Hermione went back into the bathroom, removed her soaked clothes from the sink and hung them across the shower rod. From there, she used her wand to simultaneously, and quickly, dry them out and remove any lingering slime stains. After that was done, Hermione folded the clothes neatly and placed them on the edge of the sink.

But she didn't begin to make her way home.

There was a more important matter she needed to see to first.

And it was a matter that guided her down the hallway, ignoring the curious look that Mrs. Hopkins gave her through her own classroom door, and straight into the Main Office.

"Is Mrs. Fogg in her office at the moment?" Hermione asked the secretary.

"I'm afraid not," replied the secretary.

"Well, do you happen to know where she is?"

The secretary quickly consulted something on her desk. "She's in the cafeteria, consulting with the co-"

That was all Hermione had to hear. She was out the door within seconds, headed towards the cafeteria with determination in her step.

When she reached it and opened the doors, Hermione saw Mrs. Fogg exiting the kitchen and walking in her direction. Upon seeing the teenage witch in her path, the principal stopped in her tracks and fixed Hermione with a neutral stare.

"Miss Granger," she said in an equally neutral tone. "I heard about your … incident at the museum. As you can imagine, it surprised me, to say the least."

Hermione glanced at the ground and gritted her teeth before looking back up. "That's related to the reason I want to ask you something."

"Oh?" Mrs. Fogg tilted her head slightly. "What is it you want to ask me?"

"Would it be possible to organize a meeting between all the kindergarten teachers without the purpose of said meeting being known?"

Mrs. Fogg's face finally took on an expression, and it was one of slight confusion. "I … suppose so. But why would such a meeting need to be called?"

Hermione had been anticipating this very question, and had spent the entire walk to the cafeteria perfecting the wording of her response. "To bring to light certain events that will more than explain instances like the ones at the museum."

Mrs. Fogg raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Care to elaborate on that?"

Hermione shook her head. "Not at the moment, no. But trust me, you and the other kindergarten teachers will be interested in the topic." She paused for a minute, studying the principal as closely as Mrs. Fogg was studying her. "I hate to sound out of place, but could you please do this for me?"

The reply was a delayed one, but it was still the one Hermione wanted to hear. "Very well, Miss Granger. Shall we say this coming Monday, after all classes have been dismissed?"

Hermione smiled triumphantly, while also making sure not to overdo it. "That sounds perfect. Thank you again, Mrs. Fogg. And have a pleasant evening."

Her mission accomplished, Hermione turned on her heel and exited the cafeteria, intent on completing the next part of her plan.

"I'm really glad to see you in the middle of the week, Hermione, but I have to admit _this _isn't exactly what I envisioned us doing," said Harry.

The time was 6:15 in the evening, and he and Hermione stood before an assortment of video cameras on display in an electronics store located in downtown London. The air was filled with a cacophony of sounds emanating from televisions demonstrating their crystal-clear picture quality, not to mention the songs being played over the speaker system for background music. Other customers milled about, with just a few children running around while their parents were getting educated on how the newest television worked, or why _this _new model was vastly superior to _that _old model.

As two kids dashed past Harry and Hermione, engaged in a small game of Tag, Hermione stepped closer to the display while shuddering involuntarily.

"Well, you're the first and only person I thought of to help me," she replied matter-of-factly. "If we'd brought Ron along, he would've been too occupied by poking fun at me to be of any use." Hermione picked up one of the cameras to study it more closely.

"Yeah, good point," agreed Harry. "Even still, I bet Mr. Weasley would've jumped at the chance to come with us. He'd have a field day with all these Muggle items."

Hermione put back the camera. "But that would also have meant either telling him what's going on in the classroom or outright lying to him, and neither option appeals to me. Plus, I don't want to worry him and Mrs. Weasley."

Harry and Hermione continued their stroll down the camera aisle. When Hermione's whole idea had first entered her head, she'd first assumed she would need the most advanced model possible, almost like one would expect to find used in Muggle spycraft. But ever since leaving the school and owling Harry about their "night out," reason had come back to her and said to just look for something that could get the job done.

"I'm actually surprised your family doesn't already have a video camera, Hermione," admitted Harry.

"Well, we do, but it's currently being borrowed by a relative on vacation. Besides, for what I have in mind, it'd be wise to have more than one." Hermione stopped in front of another camera and took it into her grasp, taking in all of its features.

"I just hope you know what you're doing," said Harry as he joined his best friend.

"You should be more worried for the kids."

Just then, a store employee with spiky hair and dressed in a solid green shirt and khakis approached the two of them, clearly in "selling mode" after spotting two prospective customers. "Ah, interested in that model, are we?"

"Yes," answered Hermione, flashing the worker a bright smile. "How much would two of these cost?"

Normally, the prospect of doing something as shady as sneaking into a school after hours to set up security cameras would be one that Hermione wouldn't so much as consider. But, as she'd told herself earlier that afternoon, desperate times called for desperate measures.

So here she was, in her classroom at 7:30 at night along with Harry, enacting the final phase of her plan to ultimately reclaim both her dignity and her standing in these matters. She and Harry had first gotten something to eat at a local Muggle restaurant, during which time Hermione had informed Harry of where she wanted to place each of the cameras.

The first had been set up on one of the upper shelves where the toys were kept. Not only was it out of reach for the kids, but it also provided a perfect angle, capturing a view of the whole room. But just in case there was a danger of it being spotted, Hermione had covered it enough with a few of the stuffed toys.

The second one was currently being mounted atop the miniature closet/cabinet used for coats, and was being positioned by Hermione at an angle where it would be all but invisible from the ground level. However, she had made sure that it still had an unobstructed view of the classroom.

"I feel almost like a spy in a movie," remarked Harry. He was helping hold steady the small stepladder that Hermione was standing on to place the camera where she wanted. "I keep thinking somebody's gonna burst through that door any minute."

"There's no reason for anybody else to still be here," said Hermione as she descended back to the ground, finally satisfied with where the cameras were. "And if somebody _is, _then we barely made noise, anyway." She noticed Harry was giving her a curious look. "What?"

Harry shrugged. "Nothing. I just … rarely see you so willing to break the rules, if ever."

Hermione gave an indifferent eyebrow arch. "It's for a good cause." She walked back over to her desk. "Okay, so the cameras are already on, and the simple charm we cast over them should ensure that they run without magical interference."

Harry joined her. "And you're sure you won't get in trouble with the Ministry for that?"

"This school is already expected to have a good amount of magical activity, and its security system almost makes it impossible to pinpoint a specific wand when it's used." It was then that Hermione noticed a folder lying in wait on top of her desk, one with her name scrawled across the top. She curiously picked it up.

"What's that?" asked Harry.

"Information concerning a day-long art contest," Hermione replied whilst scanning the folder's contents. "I'm supposed to announce it to the kids tomorrow." She sighed. "Just what they need."

A moment of silence passed between the two friends.

"So, if there aren't any other covert affairs we need to carry out tonight," Harry said at last, "what do you say we get out of here?"

Hermione nodded in agreement, placing the folder underneath her arm. "I've had enough sneaking around for one night. You can Floo back to The Burrow from my house."

"Actually," suggested Harry as they walked out of the room, "if it's all the same to you, I thought I could maybe spend the night? I just figured you could use the company to take your mind off things for one night."

Hermione smiled widely before kissing Harry on the cheek. "Thanks, Harry. Yeah, I'd like that very much."

For the first time since agreeing to the job, Hermione was able to leave the premises of the school with complete confidence.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: This is where the pranks REALLY start to get wild and extreme. And again, I just want it noted that Blackwolf and I just have comedy in mind when we think up the things to do to Hermione, even if the pranks may seem totally out there.**

* * *

**Chapter 15**

To say that the classroom had erupted into chaos would have been the understatement of the day. Pure, utter madness was the only way to describe the scene currently playing out in front of a bedraggled Hermione.

Any verbal attempts to control the rampant kids on her part was drowned out by the din of noise that didn't sound too far off from a chorus of battle cries. The children were scattered all around the room, engaged in activities that had nothing to do with the day's lesson plan. While a few of them were tossing paper balls at each other, another group had gotten into the toys and littered them all over the floor. From there, the children had all went off into their own little zones as they started playing, completely ignoring the fact that their teacher was still in the room. Not that Hermione was particularly complaining. The kids being occupied with their toys meant that their minds _weren't _at work on devising their latest prank against her.

On the other hand, that fact actually disappointed her somewhat.

Considering all the trouble of finding and installing the cameras last night, it was utterly ironic that it was two o' clock in the afternoon on a Friday and the kids had yet to pull anything. Not only that, but Hermione had resigned herself to being pranked for a day, as long as it meant getting the proof she needed. But there was still time left in the day, and Hermione couldn't imagine the kids going one day without getting the better of her at this point.

The irony of the situation suddenly came down on her.

Heaving a sigh, Hermione gave a quick glance at the camera mounted atop the cabinets. From her vantage point, she had a good view of the device, but with the kids being so short, it was all but invisible to them. The same could be said for the other camera on the toy shelves.

"HEADS UP!" shouted Tony, bringing Hermione back to the present.

She managed to duck her head right before a miniature toy broomstick whizzed by, continuing its pattern of flying in circles around the room. A few of the kids laughed heartily.

For a moment, Hermione considered whether this showing of disregard for the rules would be adequate enough to use, but then she figured it would only prove she was generally incapable of keeping the kids under control. What she needed was something more extreme, and aimed at her directly.

Sighing, she heaved herself out of the chair. "I'll be in the bathroom, but when I get back, we're actually going to get some work done!" The announcement was drowned out by all the noise. While reflecting on what made the kids go from calm and respectful in the first half of the day to inattentive and wild after lunch, Hermione made her way to the restroom.

The kids hardly seemed to notice that she had done so, persisting in their playful pandemonium.

The toy broomstick that had nearly collided with Hermione's head was still airborne, but Tony, who was controlling it via a toy wand, lost control of it briefly. Subsequently, it veered off-course and flew directly into the top toy shelf … the very one currently holding one of Hermione's hidden cameras.

"Drat!" said Tony. He started looking around. "Do you see a ladder or something anywhere?" he asked Bruno, who was right beside him.

"I know there's one right beside the cabinets," replied Bruno. "I'll go get it." He returned with the item in question in a matter of seconds. "It might not be tall enough," he said as he frowned and glanced at the height of the shelves.

Tony shrugged. "It's alright. I can stand on your shoulders after you climb up on the ladder. By the way, where's Hermione?"

"Oh, she's in the loo," said Bruno, sticking his thumb in the direction of the closed bathroom door. "But if we hurry, we should be able to get the broom down before she's finished."

"Sounds good to me!"

The two boys hurried over to the shelves, gaining the attention of a few of their friends as they did. Tony placed the small ladder up against the towering structure, and stepped back to allow Bruno to climb it all the way. From there, Tony didn't even need to ask for a boost. Sammy had arrived at his side of his own accord and put his hands together for Tony to put his foot in. Tony gave his classmate a quick wink before putting his right foot inside the makeshift foothold and was hoisted up enough so that he could latch onto Bruno.

It took a few seconds of slight struggling, during which Hermione miraculously didn't emerge from the bathroom, but Tony was finally able to stand on his friend's shoulders. The pressure obviously caused Bruno to wobble a bit, but he still managed to keep his balance.

"Careful," Tony cautioned him.

He now had a clear view of the upper shelf and everything it contained. At first, Tony just had tunnel vision for the toy broomstick, which he reclaimed immediately, but his attention was then captured by the camera lens looking him directly in the face.

Tony clearly stayed on Bruno's shoulders longer than he should have, because he heard Bruno call up, "What's going on?"

"It's a Muggle camera," he answered, slightly incredulous.

"What?" The question came from Aggy. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. My Dad works in the Muggle Artifact Division, and I've seen pictures of them. This is _definitely _what it is!" He threw a quick glance around the rest of the room, extending a finger to the opposite wall. "And there's another one over there!"

He got down from his perch, relieving Bruno of his burden.

"But …" said Aggy, "… where do you think they -"

As one, the class all turned their heads to the still-shut bathroom door.

"So, she thinks she can get us caught in the act, huh?" spat Tony, a plan already starting to formulate in his devious mind. "Well, we'll just have to teach her a lesson!"

"What are you thinking, Tony?" asked Aggy.

"Let me tell you."

The kids all huddled together.

Two minutes later, Hermione came out of the bathroom, only to find a scene very unlike the one she'd left a short while ago. The kids now all sat calmly on the rug in the middle of the room, smiling eagerly at her. On the board was something new. A bunch of small lines had been drawn on it, grouped next to what was clearly the picture associated with a popular Muggle game: Hangman.

"Care to play a game with us?" Tony asked politely from his seat.

Hermione quickly assessed the situation. It was very suspicious indeed how the kids had suddenly gotten calm in the few minutes she'd been gone, but then again, wasn't this what she'd been expecting? Anticipating, even? At last, here was most likely the opportunity she needed to make her case, so it made sense to play along and act like nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Sure," replied Hermione. "But after this, we really should get at least a little bit of work done." She walked up to the head of the room to stand beside the designated space on the blackboard. As she did, Hermione noticed that her wand, which had been sitting on the desk, was gone. "So, how should we play?"

"We'll show you," smirked Tony as he pulled Hermione's wand out from behind his back, aimed it at her and shouted, "_Impedimenta!_"

Even though Hermione kept telling herself to stay calm and play along, her being immobilized was still intimidating enough to instill a creeping sense of uneasiness in her. By the time the voodoo doll version of Hermione was brought out, however, the uneasiness overcame her completely.

"What are you playing at?" she asked, the fear in her voice more natural than she'd planned.

"We're playing Hangman, of course," Lori giggled.

"Or would this be Hang-_Hermione_?" chuckled Torics.

"Well, this is actually a _special _game of Hangman," said Tony, the voodoo doll still clutched in his hands. "Special because we have a real person to use for it, instead of a drawing."

The implication that an actual stick figure was missing on the board finally dawned on Hermione. _I'm the stick figure!_

"But because we can't actually lop your limbs off, we're going to do something a lot more simple and fun for us, and embarrassing for you." Tony paused for effect. His next words made Hermione's blood run cold. "For every wrong letter guessed, you'll be losing a piece of your clothing!"

"It's Strip Hangman!" Aggy declared above the sudden roar of laughter.

"You little -"

Hermione was cut off by Barrin, who had climbed on top of her desk and tore off a strip of duct tape which went securely over her mouth.

"Quiet!" declared Tony. "We'll need to concentrate!"

As Barrin hopped down from the desk, Lori got up and walked over to stand over to the side of the mystery phrase on the board, which looked long enough that it was most likely a short sentence, one that was six words long. Hermione stood just enough to the side of the board that she wasn't blocking anything.

All of a sudden, Hermione became aware of a troubling truth.

What if the kids succeeded, which seemed like a definite possibility now, and they managed to strip her down all the way to her unmentionables? Not only would she be caught in such a state on the cameras, it would also be on the tape intended for the other teachers, and that presented a huge problem. But Hermione was pulled from her thoughts by Tony's proclamation.

"Let's play!"

Hermione looked upon her class with an expression of pure, unfiltered nervousness. Not three seconds later, the hands of all the kids shot in the air as if a question had been asked to which they all knew the answer.

Lori pointed toward Miles, who put his hand down and asked, "Is there an 'H'?"

"Yes!" Lori replied before filling the letter at the beginning of the first word, as well as the second.

_I see they're drawing this out, _Hermione thought angrily. But it wasn't for too long, though, for Bruno was next and he guessed the letter D.

"Nope, no D!" Lori exclaimed excitedly.

Hermione's stomach dropped, but to her slight relief, Tony only chose one of her shoes to dispose of at first. He removed said item from the voodoo doll, and correspondently, Hermione's left shoe slid off her foot.

"New spell," he said as he held up the doll, noticing Hermione's confused look. The last instance with the doll had made her mirror the actions of the toy. "It wouldn't be as fun if you helped."

A tiny glimmer of hope began to sparkle, but then Hermione figured that the kids were just egging her on.

The next letter guessed was E, which went in the second and eighth slots of the first word, and that made it obvious that it was Hermione's name which began the sentence. The kids knew Hermione had figured this out, so they went ahead and guessed the remaining letters in her name. Incidentally, the fourth word in the sentence, which was three letters long, had an I in the middle.

"Don't get so happy, Hermione," said Lori. "The fun part starts now!"

She wasn't joking about that. Barrin guessed a C, which made Hermione lose her other shoe. The guesses of K and L, from Aggy and Sammy respectively, cost Hermione her socks. And it was the incorrect guess of P that made her watch slip off her wrist,

That's when she _really _got nervous. There were now no small things like socks and wristwatches to fall back on.

Hermione's imminent exposure was stalled slightly when Alice guessed a B, which turned out to be the first letters in both the fourth and sixth word. Benjamin put forth A as his guess, which filled in the second slots of both the second and fifth words, each three letters long, and it filled the sole slot that was the third word of the sentence.

Lori, who was clearly reveling in her duties as "game runner", called upon Miles again to make the next guess.

"Is there a … J?"

Lori positively beamed before replying, "No! Too bad for you, Hermione!" This caused the kids to giggle maliciously.

"So," said Tony, "what do you guys think should go first?"

"Her shirt!" shouted Benjamin. "Get rid of her shirt!" The rest of his classmates all nodded vigorously in agreement.

Hermione made an angry noise of protest underneath the tape, but it was ultimately useless and one which the kids paid no attention to.

Tony glanced up and gave his tormented teacher the widest smile he could before he refocused back on the doll. Ever so slowly, he maneuvered the arms so that they extended directly upward over Hermione's head. With the same amount of enjoyment, he proceeded to pull the tiny shirt on the doll up until it had been completely slipped off. The same thing occurred to the real Hermione at the same time, revealing the light purple bra she wore underneath.

Even though this wasn't the first time that the kids had viewed Hermione's underwear, they still cracked up just as much as if it had been the first.

But that seemed unimportant to Hermione at the moment. What really concerned her when her anger wasn't clouding her senses was the fact that this was all being captured on video camera. At best, she had hoped that the kids would just pull something like the Butt Tag incident or even getting her all sloppy again. Either of those were much more preferable to anything involving her underwear.

There were seven slots left in the sentence in total, and only three articles of clothing left on Hermione. The odds weren't in her favor. And to add insult to injury, Hermione could deduce that whatever phrase was on the board was some sort of "humorous" remark about her.

_Figures, _her inner voice growled.

Regardless, the tension in the room was high.

But the kids still wanted to milk this situation for all it was worth. Barrin guessed S, which completed the second word. This revealed the first half of the sentence to be "Hermione has a …"

"X!" yelled Aggy.

_X? How often does X pop up in a sentence?_

Not often enough to keep Hermione's pants on, as it turned out, because the lack of that letter caused her to lose them. Now, the kids could see that her purple panties matched her bra.

Amidst the fresh round of laughter, Hermione's thoughts alternated between _Please don't guess any more wrong letters, _and _If only I could get my hands on these brats!_

The next two guesses of G and F from Alice and Torics kept Hermione's underwear in place and also revealed the fourth word to be "big." The F went at the beginning of the fifth word.

Hermione could guess what it said now, which only added to her anger.

An incorrect guess of Y signaled what she'd been dreading, which was the removal of her bra.

If Hermione currently had control of her arms, she would have covered her bare boobs with them, but the kids made sure that modesty wasn't an option. Visions of the incident outside the Mini Ministry suddenly flashed through Hermione's mind. She was too shocked and embarrassed to feel angry. The kids, however, weren't afraid to show her that they were now in stitches.

One more wrong letter meant total exposure for her.

"U!" exclaimed Sammy, which went in the second slot of the final word. That left three empty slots.

Then came the cheeky guess of Z on Tony's part. Of course, there was no Z, and that caused the kids to all cheer in triumph while Lori squealed in delight and clapped her hands together.

Hermione's panties were removed in one quick motion, leaving her bare naked and nothing left to the imagination. If she could've moved, Hermione would've grabbed Tony by the throat.

"Well, Hermione," said Lori once the laughter had reached a lull, "would you like to know what the rest of this was?" She grabbed Hermione around the waist and swiveled her around so that her view of the board was unobstructed. Also unobstructed was the kids' view of her bottom. Lori filled in the remaining slots all with one letter, T. The sentence read, "Hermione has a big, fat butt."

"Don't you all agree?" Lori asked her friends delightedly.

"YES!" they all chorused.

"Look at it this way," continued Lori. "This game was also like a spelling lesson!"

Hermione felt the binding spell being lifted off her, causing her to stumble and catch her balance on the chalk holder. She whirled around, positively livid, with any notions of putting her clothes back on momentarily forgotten in lieu of her desire for revenge.

But mainly because Tony had swiped up her clothes.

"YOU ALL ARE DEAD, YOU HEAR ME? DEAD!"

With no regard for covering up her private parts, Hermione lunged with all her might at Tony. But the little trickster was too fast for her, because he rolled to the side just in time to let Hermione crash down on the alphabet carpet with an "Mmmmph!"

"DON'T LET HER GET HER CLOTHES BACK!" Tony yelled. He distributed out each article of clothing to a few of his friends, all of whom dashed off in different directions as Hermione dazedly raised her head. In front of her stood Tony, who tauntingly dangled her bra between the two of them, letting it swing from side to side. "Come and get it," he dared.

While Hermione got to her feet, Tony ran off, but Hermione was able to gain up on him shortly. She attempted to grab him with both arms, but before she could, Tony had flung the bra off to his right, where Aggy caught it with no effort. Grunting, Hermione abandoned her pursuit of Tony in order to chase after Aggy.

Aggy, however, didn't run away. Instead, she simply stood there with a contented smile, moving Hermione's bra around in a taunting manner similar to Tony's. Hermione was almost on top of her when she suddenly stopped in her tracks involuntarily, overcome with the sensation attributed with the voodoo doll.

That's when she panicked.

As Aggy continued to wave the bra in front of her, Hermione's top half was bent down until her view was that of the one between her bare legs, upside down. From there, she could see Tony manipulating the doll into the same position, a devilish grin on his face.

"Backflip!" he proclaimed.

Hermione didn't have time to let out any noises of protest in the split-second it took her top half to be pushed through her legs so that her entire body could flip through the air and land with a thud on the carpet.

As she lay there sucking in air, the kids continued to run around.

"Hey, Hermione!"

The sound of Barrin's voice caused Hermione to turn on her side and look in his direction. Barrin was standing a short distance away from her, her purple panties being worn on his head like a crude hat.

"Guess what I am!"

He proceeded to make Indian noises using his hand and mouth before he ran off, still making those noises.

The fresh rush of anger invigorated Hermione enough to get up and chase Barrin with unwavering determination. Seconds later, the all-too-familiar voodoo force overtook her again, and this time, it caused her to get down on all fours whilst continuing the chase. Out the corner of her eye, Hermione could spot Tony working the doll as if she were a dog. And while she was walking like a dog, she yelped when a ball suddenly hit her on the butt.

"ENOUGH!" Hermione roared.

She felt the invisible force being lifted, but only enough to allow her to stand on her knees. As much as she struggled, Hermione simply could not get her lower legs to move from the floor.

"Time for one more game!" announced Tony as all of the kids formed a circle around their naked teacher. "Let's play Monkey in the Middle!"

"That seems fair," chortled Lori. "Hermione looks the part already."

The kids all laughed.

After that, the game began. The kids started tossing pieces of Hermione's clothes into the air to one another, just high enough so that Hermione was unable to reach up and snatch them. With her stuck on her knees, the kids had evened the playing field appropriately.

All the while, Tony made sure that the voodoo doll remained in the same fixed position.

Hermione's underwear was getting the most "air time," as the kids were clearly reveling in having access to it. There was one instance where Hermione came close to grabbing her pants, but Tony made sure that didn't happen by making her bend down.

The "game" went on for what seemed like hours, until Alice suddenly said, "Our parents are coming any minute!"

In under five seconds, the kids all hurried toward the closets where their backpacks were kept and stuffed Hermione's clothes into various ones. Hermione, her legs still rendered immobile, could do nothing but watch angrily until there was a knock at the door.

_No, no, no!_

The parents had arrived, and Hermione was kneeling in the center of the floor, butt-naked and with nothing to obstruct the view. But the kids obviously didn't want to run the risk of being caught, so Tony reverted the doll to its regular position, which allowed Hermione to run over and dive behind her desk just as the door swung open.

Hermione didn't dare look as the kids all found their parents, but she did hear one of the adults ask, "Where's Miss Granger?" That gave her no choice but to poke her head out from the side, smiling the most convincing smile she could.

"I'm right here! Just fixing a little problem with my desk, that's all." The kids all snickered at her excuse.

"Oh," said Miles' Dad, "would you like some help?"

"No!" Hermione shouted hastily, which caused the parent to stop in his tracks and give her a curious look. "Er, I've almost got it done, anyway. So there's really no need."

Mr. Jinks nodded and went back to tend to his son. Hermione sighed in relief.

"Well, have a good weekend, Hermione!" said Tony as he waved. "Oh, and I hope get that problem of yours covered." He paused momentarily to adjust one of the straps on his backpack. "Your desk problem, I mean." Tony winked at her.

Hermione channeled all the white-hot anger she currently felt into smiling as if she wasn't crouched behind a wooden desk in her birthday suit. "You too, kids! See you Monday!"

As the children were all guided out of the classroom, the question of where her wand was at the moment occurred to her. Frantically, Hermione started scanning the room for said object until her eyes settled on it in the very spot where Tony had been undressing her during Hangman.

The instant the door had closed, Hermione made a mad dash for her wand. Unfortunately, she knew of no spell that could restore clothing, or even give the impression that one was wearing clothes, so that left her pushed into a corner.

It was around the time when Hermione was debating just how fast she could run to the fireplaces without anybody noticing her when she caught sight of something in the still-opened closets. It was a giant roll of bright orange construction paper, one which looked big enough to potentially provide enough coverage for the naked body of someone Hermione's size.

_Better than nothing, _Hermione growled to herself as she went over to the closets and pulled out the construction paper. At the same time, she made a mental note to rewind the security tapes before she left.

Whatever happened on Monday was bound to be more presentable than today's events.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Okay, so, are we all clear on what to do?" asked Aggy, addressing the rest of her friends. They all nodded, excited smirks twisting up the corners of their mouths. "Good."

Today was the day of the school-wide Art Contest, in which every class would participate by constructing anything they wanted from the materials they had. The rules were broad enough that said project could be anything from a mural, collage or statue. Right before the end of the day, each creation would be brought out into the Main Hall so that they could be judged. There was said to be slots for three winners, and the class to take First Place would be given a "special opportunity."

The kids, naturally, had jointly decided over the weekend that this contest was indeed a special opportunity. It gave them the chance to continue their campaign against Hermione in the most enjoyable way possible.

The truth was that ever since the initial seven kids from the Mini Ministry had first found out that Hermione would be the one watching over them for the summer, the notorious pranksters had been downright delighted. Due to Hermione's close friendship with the famous Harry Potter, she had become something of a pet project of the Sinister Seven, as they were formerly known. Before then, the kids had pranked numerous victims, all of them older teens and all of them unbeknownst to their parents. While Hermione hadn't exactly been their sole intended target, the kids had been hoping to get the chance to utterly humiliate one of the "Golden Trio", as other kids called them, for a long time. And Hermione turned out to be the one to first cross paths with them not once, but twice.

The now Terrible Ten still couldn't believe their luck.

Hermione hadn't arrived yet. The kids had convinced their parents to drop them off early, giving the excuse that they were very excited for the Art Contest, cleverly leaving out _why _they were excited.

Aggy had been the one to come up with the idea of what they were going to do to Hermione, so she'd been given "ringleader" status for the day. And it was a title she absolutely couldn't wait to exercise.

The excited chatter of the kids died down the instant the presence of Hermione in the doorway was detected. She had her hands on her hips and was looking at all of them with the kind of angry stare associated with cartoon villains.

Despite that, however, Aggy had the gall to ask one question. "Morning, Hermione! How was your weekend?"

Hermione stepped forward into the classroom and shut the door assertively behind her, but not so loud that it would attract unwanted attention. "I'll tell you how my weekend went, Aggy!" Her tone was the sort where almost every syllable was over-emphasized. "Seeing as how you lot robbed me of my clothes Friday -"

The kids all giggled loudly.

"It's _not _funny!" snarled Hermione. "What's especially not funny is having to wrap a bunch of orange construction paper around your person and sneak down to the fireplaces, hoping no one else will see you!"

The giggles became roars of laughter.

"SILENCE!"

But the kids did nothing of the sort.

"Oh, that reminds me," said Aggy as she crossed over to one of the cubby holes, "we should give your clothes back." She reached into her assigned cubby and removed the items in question, all of which were quite literally in tatters. What had once been Hermione's shirt was now strips of fabric, her jeans were cut into squares, her bra torn in half between each cup, and her panties had big holes in the butt and crotch areas.

Aggy handed them to Hermione as casually as she would a homework assignment. "There you are! Feel free to try on your panties for us!" She gave her accomplices a big grin, to which they all broke out laughing again.

Hermione just stared at the remains of her clothes in shock. That shock soon turned to anger as she let the fabric fall to the floor. "I … was fond of this outfit! Do any of you know _anything _about respect? Clearly not, so let me tell you a thing or two about it!"

_Oh, for Merlin's sake, _Aggy groaned to herself. _Here she goes with one of her speeches again. _The kindergartener looked at her teacher as if she was paying attention, but within five seconds, she had zoned out Hermione's tirade entirely. _It's all the same._

Pretty soon, Aggy found herself imagining Hermione in funny scenarios, such as her covered in animal waste or getting attacked by a monkey. Thoughts such as those made Aggy want to laugh, but given the situation, she had to hold it back.

"Have I gotten my point across?" Hermione asked pointedly, finally wrapping up her latest lecture.

The kids all nodded, but Aggy could tell that the rest of them had all ignored her words as well.

"Right, well, if it were up to me, you would all be doing labor work today. But seeing as how we have the Art Contest, your punishment will have to wait."

_Meaning you don't want anyone to see you naked from Friday, so you want to catch us in the act again, _thought Aggy while briefly glancing at one of the still-active cameras.

"And on that note, considering what you did to me on Friday, I will be deciding our project."

The kids immediately started to groan and complain.

"_We're _supposed to decide!" Lori cried.

"And we already know what we want to do!" Aggy added.

"Yeah!" exclaimed Sammy. "A paper mash statue!"

Aggy slipped her hand into her right pocket and wrapped her fingers around the small sack that was stuffed inside.

"You mean paper _mache _statue?" Hermione half-asked, half-corrected. The kids nodded vigorously. "Well while that sounds like a lot of work, and a good chance for us to win. You'll be ..." She paused as she reached for a piece of construction paper and held it up. "Cutting out shapes.""

Again, the kids groaned in annoyance. Aggy, on the other hand, grinned as she thought about their teacher running around with nothing but construction paper to cover her body. Aggy knew it was Hermione's attempt to get back at them, using something that was obviously humiliating to her. She quickly dropped her grin when she noticed Hermione smiling almost evily at them.

_Thinks she can ruin our chance by having us cut out shapes. We'll see about that_, Aggy thought as the smile came to her face again. She briefly glanced at the still-active cameras, then slipped her hand into her right pocket and wrapped her fingers around the small sack that was stuffed inside.

"But we actually made a drawing of it. Here, let me show you." She raised her clasped hand slightly. "Don't you want us to win? If we do, you'll be the best teacher."

The rest of the kids verbally agreed, and started expressing how well the other teachers would see her if they did something more than cut-outs. Aggy's smile grew, as she knew the idea was tempting to Hermione.

Hermione looked at Aggy's hand suspiciously, hesitating in doing anything. But the convincingly earnest expression on the little girl's face seemed to have been enough, because she bent down slightly.

The instant she did, however, Aggy opened her hand, brought her mouth in front of it, and blew hard.

The glittery Sleeping Dust that had been inside it flew into Hermione's face before the teenage witch could do anything. Hermione shook her head while straightening herself up and sneezed.

"You little … brat …"

Hermione's voice became distant and her eyes fluttered closed before she fell to the left onto the alphabet carpet with a thud. She was out like a light before her body even made contact.

The kids immediately swarmed around her sleeping form, giving each other high-fives, but Aggy especially.

"Okay, guys," she said delightedly while clapping her hands together. "Let's make some art! Who has the marker?"

"I do," said Barrin as he pulled a black marker with a purple cap out of his pocket.

"Right," smiled Aggy delightfully. "Well, first things first. Let's take off her bottoms."

"I'll lock the door!" exclaimed Lori while she raced to it, shut it and twisted the lock so that no one could walk in and catch them in the act.

Meanwhile, a few of the other kids, mainly the boys, descended upon Hermione's body and went about undoing her shoelaces before slipping off her sneakers and socks. From there, they gleefully undid her pants button and zipper and removed her pants and underwear in the blink of an eye. They giggled all the while, especially when they rolled Hermione over onto her front, thus exposing her naked butt to them for what, to them, felt like the umpteenth time.

In the midst of all this, Aggy tossed the marker to Bruno, who caught it deftly. "We'll let you, Tony and Alice go first. Just make sure not to take up too much room."

"On _this _fat bum?" Tony heartily smacked Hermione's right butt cheek. "I don't think we need to worry about that!"

The kids all laughed as Bruno uncapped the marker and sat down upon Hermione's bare legs, using them as a sort of cushion as he set about doing what he had to do.

Carefully enough so as not to smudge anything, Bruno touched the tip of the marker gracefully to Hermione's bare skin and started to write on an area near her hip. It didn't take him long, because he only wrote his name, accentuated by a single exclamation mark at the end. As his classmates giggled profusely, Bruno took a moment to admire his work. The writing was in vibrant purple and had that fresh, bright glow that all new markers had. Pleased, he passed the marker off to Tony, who also took his friend's "seat."

Tony signed his name just beneath Bruno's, and added a small smiley face. Alice was next, but she resigned herself to just putting her name and nothing else. The three of them putting their names on the fringe of their instructor's rear end left a bountiful amount of room with which the other seven kids could put whatever they wanted onto Hermione's flesh.

"Talk about an art project!" cackled Sammy as he was handed the marker and sat on Hermione's legs. "Hmmmmmm." He stroked his chin thoughtfully for a second and then grinned wickedly as he used the marker to inscribe the words "Sammy Was Here!" near the top of Hermione's butt.

"Is this fun, or what?!" he declared as he stood up and passed the marker off to Lori.

Lori took to simply writing her name, but added the extra flourish of turning the "o" in her name into a face that was sticking its tongue out. She had written it at an angle near the top of Hermione's left butt cheek.

Due to the length of Benjamin's name, he decided just signing that was enough, so Miles didn't have to wait long for his turn. He hesitated just a moment, though, as he considered what he wanted to write.

"C'mon, Miles! The rest of us are waiting!" whined Barrin.

"Okay, I've got it!" Miles squealed as he stuck his finger into the air in an "aha!" gesture.

He bent over slightly, placing his left hand on his teacher's rump for "support" while making sure not to smudge any of his classmates' writings. What Miles wrote was thus: "Miles. Lay off the Cauldron Cakes!"

This got a big laugh not just from its author, but the others as well. The short message was located partially underneath Sammy's on the left side, still leaving enough room in the center of the cheek for someone else to write more than one word.

That's exactly what Torics did. He wrote "Big-Butt Hermione!" with his name underneath.

"Who's next?" Torics asked above the roar of immature laughter.

"Me!" exclaimed Barrin, who ran forward with uncontained excitement. He even hopped onto Hermione's legs, the broadest smile on his face. With just as much enthusiasm, Barrin followed Miles' example and went about inscribing another cheeky phrase across his teacher's derriere. The words spread across the entire body part and read, "Brains stored here!"

This got the loudest roar of laughter, prompting Barrin to even take a bow after he got up. "Last, but not least," he said as Aggy stepped forth and took the marker.

"You know, I can just hear Hermione now," said the prank leader while she drew something other than words on the butt cheeks of The Brightest Witch of Her Age. "She, and others like her, would say how rude it is to do something funny like this, that people's butts aren't for drawing on. Those are people who have no sense of humor. Well, all I can say is … too bad for them! We can't help it that they're all _proper._"

"Yeah!" agreed Barrin. "We're kids! For us, this _is _proper!"

"Exactly," said Aggy as she finished what she'd been drawing. She leaned back slightly to get a better look at her handiwork. In the center of each of Hermione's butt cheeks, Aggy had drawn a pair of eyes, complete with eyelashes. The sight gave the impression that Hermione's bum had been turned into a crude face, apart from all the writing. With an accomplished smirk, Aggy could only think of Hermione's reaction when she woke up and discovered what they'd done.

"I have an idea!" exclaimed Miles suddenly before he dashed over to where the backpacks were kept and pulled his out. He unzipped it and rifled through the inside for a few moments before finally pulling out what he'd been searching for: a camera. Miles was back at his classmates' sides in under five seconds. "I think we should take a picture. Or two. Or three! You know, so we can remember how good a job we did on the _first part _of our big art project!"

"Good thinking!" smiled Aggy amidst hearty giggles from everyone else. "Tell you what, Miles. You can go ahead and do the honors!"

Miles looked like he'd just been told that he'd won three vaults-worth of Galleons at Gringotts. He approached the still-unconscious Hermione with her crudely decorated butt and momentarily placed his camera on the ground. He took that time to put his hands on either side of the teenage witch's rear and lift it slightly so that it was sticking up in the air just a bit.

The rest of the class went from giggling to more outright laughter.

Miles stepped behind his teacher's upturned butt, camera in hand, and lifted the object so that he could snap three quick photographs in rapid succession.

"Now we can always remember this!" he shouted delightedly.

"Okay, onto Phase Two!" announced Aggy. She, Barrin and Torics all raced over to the cabinets under the sink and opened the doors. Inside were large bowls filled with water. Next to each bowl were large bags containing strips of paper. As the three kids helped each other to haul out the materials, Sammy had gone over to the bookcase and extracted a large, thick book from the bottom shelf. The title of the book was, "Arts and Crafts and Magic."

Sammy put the book down on a nearby tabletop and was on his way over to help the others, when an unexpected noise caused them all to freeze in their tracks.

That sound was Hermione groaning wearily from where she was on the floor. Her head was shifting slowly. As she started to lift her head, the kids' faces showed pure panic.

"Wh-what's going on?" Hermione asked thickly. "Why…why do I feel a draft?" Keeping her eyes trained upon the shocked children, Hermione slid her hand down to her left thigh. Her facial expression matched the kids'. "WHERE ARE MY PANTS? WHERE IS MY _UNDERWEAR?"_

Aggy shook her head, coming out of her daze. "QUICK! GET HER!"

Tony and Lori instantly jumped on top of Hermione's legs, thus keeping them restrained, while Benjamin and Miles sat on her back.

"HEY! GET OFF ME!"

Aggy ran over to where Hermione's pants lay discarded and dove for the back pockets. She wasted no time in scooping out the wand and hightailing it to where Hermione currently struggled under the weight of four kids.

The wand was placed against Hermione's temple.

"Don't you -"

Aggy enunciated a Sleeping Spell clear as day. Instantly, Hermione was rendered unconscious once again, going limp without any more trouble.

Aggy sighed heavily in relief. "That was too close."

"She'll _stay _asleep now, right?" asked Sammy as the others cautiously got off Hermione.

"At least until we want her to wake up," nodded Aggy. "That spell lasts for six hours. We'll be more than done by then."

The kids all relaxed visibly and collectively.

From there, the rest of their plan was carried out. Lori and Alice went about removing Hermione's shirt and bra from her body, leaving her completely naked for the second day in a row. The girls giggled audibly as they proceeded to roll the slumbering victim across the floor until she lay face-up on top of a roll of plastic which Benjamin had retrieved from the closets. The roll was sufficiently wide enough for Hermione to fit on.

"She looks a bit like Sleeping Beauty," remarked Miles. "Only … naked."

"Who?" Alice raised her eyebrow.

"Never mind," waved off Miles, forgoing an explanation of the Muggle fairy tale.

The next few minutes were spent by having the water buckets dragged over next to Hermione's form and the kids dipping a sizable amount of the paper strips into the liquid.

"Wait," said Lori suddenly. "Don't you think we should put her in a pose or something to make it look pretty?"

"Good idea," agreed Aggy. "I already know what to do."

Not needing any help from her friends, Aggy expertly maneuvered Hermione's limbs to suit the image she had in her mind. Hermione's right leg remained ramrod straight while her left was bent forward slightly, but not so much that her balance would be lost upon standing. Next, Aggy concerned herself with the arms. She moved the left one back so that it hung behind Hermione, the wrist nearly connecting with her hip, which was now at an angle due to her bent left leg. Hermione's right arm was bent up so that it looked like she was miming holding a telephone. And for the final touch, Aggy pushed Hermione's head toward her right hand so that the pose was complete.

Hermione wasn't just "on the phone." She was "poetically on the phone."

"There," she remarked with satisfaction.

"Now for the fun part!" declared Sammy as he lifted a paper strip from one of the water bowls and eagerly, yet carefully, placed it across the center of Hermione's face. The strip covered her nose and the center of her cheeks and a portion of her hand.

After it had been applied, however, the wet strip expanded out of its own accord. It left just enough breathing room for Hermione so that she wouldn't suffocate, and allow the kids to proceed with the prank without that worry hanging over their heads.

"Looks like that book was useful after all," Aggy said to Sammy, pointing at the large item in question he'd left on the table. "We couldn't have done this to Hermione without that spell to make the paper expand when it's wet."

"Yeah," smirked Sammy. "It really came in handy, didn't it? And, since the spell makes it work without using paste, it's a lot easier."

The kids wasted no more time in covering their sleeping teacher in the paper mache. Despite the circumstances, the level of teamwork and determination that the group showed while plastering Hermione would have impressed the authority figures in the school.

That was precisely what the kids were counting on, however.

Because of that work ethic, they had finished constructing their "masterpiece" by the time lunch rolled around.

* * *

"Before the winner of today's school-wide Art Contest is announced, I would just like to take a moment and acknowledge all of the hard work each class put into each project."

The ringing voice of Mrs. Fogg, combined with the round of applause that followed, served to bring Hermione out of her sleepy state even faster. The body-wide feeling of exhaustion that was typical of coming out of a deep rest was prevalent, but once Hermione's eyes fluttered open, that exhaustion was instantly erased by the discovery of three things.

The first was that she was currently enveloped in total darkness. The next was the fact that a piece of duct tape was covering her mouth. And the final thing was the sensation of being contorted into an awkward physical position. The not-so-vague memories of being stuck inside the magical box immediately flooded over Hermione. The only difference was that there were no holes or slide for her to look through this time.

_Those … those … _Hermione referred to the kids as something their parents would have disapproved of her saying, much less thinking.

Mrs. Fogg continued to speak while Hermione attempted to figure out where she was exactly. "And now, the winner of the contest is …" There was a lingering pause. "Miss Granger's kindergarten class! For their absolutely wonderful work in constructing a life-size paper mache statue! And the name of said statue is The Girl Who Never Stops Talking!"

That was when it hit Hermione.

_THEY WRAPPED ME IN PAPER MACHE? _Half of Hermione was downright furious, but the other half questioned whether something like this was all that surprising at this point.

When the round of applause had died down, Mrs. Fogg spoke again. "I'm told Miss Granger had to attend to a family matter, so would one of her students like to come up and accept the award?"

During the time Hermione assumed it took for one of the two-faced brats to strut to wherever the principal stood, she could just picture the little monsters feeding such a rotten lie to Mrs. Fogg. She attempted to struggle inside the hardened paper, but it was too close-fitting for her to do much moving.

"Thank you very much!" came Aggy's voice. "We worked very hard on this, and it was a lot of fun! The statue is based on our teacher, Miss Hermione. She _really _came in handy! If we had to, we'd do it again!"

_Twisted little bugger, _Hermione thought venomously. Unlike at the museum, she didn't even try to make desperate noises through her gag because by now, Hermione knew full well these kids were just as smart as she was. And being so smart, they'd probably cast some charm on the paper mache to muffle or completely drown out any sound that would come from inside.

"As part of their reward," Mrs. Fogg announced over the fresh wave of applause, "the class will spend the later half of tomorrow morning constructing a _special _display to be put up during Lunch."

Hermione's mind already started racing through every possibility of what could go wrong with that. Granted, of course, she was ever freed from this paper prison.

"Now, it's nearly time to go home for the day. We need a volunteer to help Miss Granger's students take their statue back to their room. Ah, yes, thank you, Mr. Atwell."

Suddenly, Hermione felt a slight shift, which was most likely her statue-self being loaded onto something with wheels. Her suspicion was confirmed when she started moving smoothly and a mild squeaking emanated, signifying rolling wheels, possibly on some type of cart. Behind her, Hermione could make out the excited chatter of the kids, and it made her want nothing more than to throttle each and every one of them. But with her arms and legs being held at angles by the lining of the statue, that was impossible. To her, it felt like she was speaking on a telephone that was clutched in her right hand.

Eventually, the moving stopped and the squeaking wheels soon faded away until there was silence punctuated by the occasional giggle. Hermione could tell the kids were savoring the moment, but the longer they left her cased up like this, the angrier she got.

"Okay, Hermione," Aggy said finally. "We're going to let you out now. But first, we'd like you to know we _could _have left you like this all night-"

"Why _don't _we?" interjected Tony rather harshly.

Aggy continued on, paying him no mind. "But we don't want your parents getting suspickus."

"Suspicious," corrected Lori.

_Well, aren't you just the considerate ones? You rotten, little vermin._

A small beam of light popped into view on Hermione's right side, and that light began to move down, which in turn created a small shaft of even more light. Within a minute, the hardened coating of the statue fell away in twos and crashed to the floor. Hermione, who no longer had the support of the statue, did the same, falling face-first onto the alphabet carpet with an "Ooof!" It was then that she realized that she was naked again, and just like last time, the cameras were catching everything. That meant they had also filmed the process of Hermione having paper mache layered over her body.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! EVERY! LAST! ONE!"

Decency went right out the window as Hermione got to her feet and lunged for the nearest kid, who happened to be Aggy. Hermione remembered she'd been the one to instigate this whole prank by blowing Sleeping Dust in her face.

Aggy was too fast. She ducked out of Hermione's reach and joined her classmates as they all filed calmly over to the door.

"See you tomorrow, Hermione! Oh, and by the way, you might want to check out the little art we left _behind _on you."

The kids all cackled triumphantly as they exited the classroom, shutting the door behind them.

Aggy's departing words instilled dread in Hermione, enough to cause her to go racing into the bathroom, flip on the light and turn around in front of the mirror.

What she saw caused her to scream in a mixture of shock and white-hot anger.

_There's WRITING all over my BUTT!_

Hermione just stood there shell-shocked as that one phrase kept repeating itself over and over in her head.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

If Hermione had her way, today would have been the day she'd outed the kids.

After an evening spent mostly in the shower whilst furiously attempting to scrub away the writing that the kids had scrawled all over her butt, any tiny bit of patience she might have once had with the little culprits was now completely gone. Hermione had scrubbed and scrubbed until her skin was raw, but the taunting purple letters remained right where they were. Upon discovering that she now had a permanent "Butt of Shame," Hermione had dropped the soap so that splatters of water rose from the shower floor and she let out the most visceral grunt she could, which was partially masked by the running water.

But today was quickly proving not to be her day, anyway, and not because of the kids. The first thing Hermione had done upon arriving to the school early was head straight for Mrs. Fogg's office. Her game plan had been to ask the Principal to accompany her to the classroom, where Hermione had every intention of showing her what was on the tapes from the cameras, her modesty be damned. With every step she took, Hermione could hear the kids laughing at her, as if the messages crudely scrawled on her rear had some kind of charm whereupon said sound was contained in them, like an immature recording playing over and over. She shook it off, though, when she approached Mrs. Fogg's secretary.

"I need to see Mrs. Fogg," Hermione stated assertively. "I trust she's in?"

The secretary looked up from a romance novel she'd been passing the time with before the day officially began, slightly surprised to see Hermione so early and so determined. "I'm afraid not, dear," she said kindly, thus visibly deflating Hermione somewhat. "Mrs. Fogg is over at the Ministry until just before noon, meeting with members of the Educational Board."

_Is there some kind of Anti-Hermione spell placed over this school over something? Can't I EVER catch a break?_

Hermione sighed deeply, rubbing her temples. "So, you say she'll be back around noon?" _That gives those little brats plenty of time to do something else to me._

"Yes. However, while I have you here …" The secretary set her book down and rifled through a few notes on her desk until she found the one she wanted. "Your class won yesterday's Art Contest."

_Oh, believe me, I know._

"So they're in charge of designing a display for lunch today, with your guidance, of course. You'll all have access to the Art Room for the first half of the morning, where the kids will make the sign to go along with the actual display."

Hermione lifted her face from her fingers. "What is the display supposed to be _of, _exactly?"

"A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which will be constructed during the second half of the morning." The secretary then handed Hermione a single key. "Everything's ready for you in the Art Room. It's the last door on the Kindergarten hallway. Mrs. Hopkins has been instructed to bring your class down there to you once the children arrive."

Hermione took the key, eyeing it rather wearily. She couldn't see how the kids being alone with her in the Art Room would go over well. "Alright. But if Mrs. Fogg by some chance arrives back early, could you please tell her that I'd like to have a word?"

"Certainly."

If Hermione'd had her way, she would have stripped away every single one of the kids' leisurely activities from here on out. However, as she begrudgingly made her way toward the Art Room, her rational side reminded her that doing something so extreme would work against her before showing any proper proof. A few of the other teachers already suspected Hermione of being needlessly strict, and anything short of showing off the nudity-laced video tapes or even dropping her pants to show off her graffiti-like butt would paint that specific portrait of her in even more vibrant colors.

By requesting that Mrs. Fogg visit the Art Room if she arrived back to the school early enough, that would hopefully provide Hermione with the perfect opportunity to have the kids get caught red-handed. Of course, that also meant that she'd need to resign herself to getting pranked yet again. Considering that these kids were The Terrible Ten and that they would soon be alone with Hermione in a room filled with Art materials, there was no chance of mayhem not breaking out. Hermione also knew that hedging her bets on a slim chance of Mrs. Fogg returning early was more foolish than not, but she'd happily take one last shot at not having to show her naked form that was recorded on the tapes.

The instructions left for Hermione in the Art Room said that she was to go ahead and trace the outlines of big block letters on a wide strip of white construction paper that was on a nearby table. The message she was supposed to write was "Peanut Butter and Jelly For Everyone!" Glancing at her watch, Hermione noted that she had enough time to trace the message before the kids showed up, so that's precisely what she did. All the while, she kept imagining how the "art session" on her butt must have played out yesterday, and it only served to make Hermione angrier by the second. She just couldn't believe how far the kids had gone!

A sudden knock at the door Hermione had left open alerted her to a new presence, and she spun around to see the kids all standing in the room, devilish smiles on their faces. Mrs. Hopkins was behind them in the doorway.

"Here they are," Hermione's fellow instructor announced. "They're all yours." She left without another word.

The silence that followed was nearly lethal. As the kids stood there, looking at Hermione with smug superiority, Hermione in turn glared daggers at the little monsters, channeling every ounce of anger she could into that expression.

It was Aggy who finally broke the staring contest. "So, Hermione, how do you like our _Year Butt?_"

The other kids all chortled.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, and if she knew how much it made her look like Snape, she would have been slightly frightened of that ability. "_Excuse me?_"

"Year Butt," repeated Aggy. "I mean, we can't exactly call it a Year Book, can we? But it still has the same amount of space!"

The chortles became outright laughs.

"_Silence!_" hissed Hermione. "Clearly, none of my speeches seem to be getting through to you -"

"Ya think?" snickered Barrin.

"…SO, I'll just forgo one for today and warn you that from here on out, I'd be careful in trying to pull any more pranks on me if I were in your position. The consequences may be approaching faster than you think!"

"Will they hit you in the butt when they come?" joked Tony. "Cause we'd love to see that!" The laughter continued.

"That's another thing! Those snarky remarks are just as bad as your infantile pranks! And if you keep those up, you'll receive just as strict a punishment!" Hermione paused to survey the lot of them sternly. "Now, if the next word out of your mouths is anything but 'yes,' then I'll show you just how serious I am! Understood?"

"Yes," the kids all said collectively, the fun draining out of their expressions.

Hermione smiled with satisfaction, enjoying her moment of victory. "Good." She swiveled around in her chair so that she could pick up the colorless banner and display it. "As you all know, part of the reward for you so _unfairly _winning the Art Contest is the chance to design a display for today's Lunch. Your first job is to paint in these letters. There are cans of paint stored in the closet to the right, and paintbrushes in the cubby holes beside that. Rather than me getting them for you, I'd prefer it if you retrieved the items yourselves."

The kids appeared annoyed at having to do so, but they did as they were ordered all the same. While they did, Hermione got up out of her seat and smoothed the banner back out on the table. Other chairs already surrounded the table, so there was no need for her to scoot any of them over. Within one minute, the kids had all gathered what they required for the project and deposited them on either side of the banner.

What Hermione _didn't _know, however, was that the closet held two of each paint color, and it was something that the kids had gleefully taken into account. By the time they had gathered around the table, another diabolical plan had formed itself in their minds.

They started painting in the letters without a word while Hermione watchfully stood over them, making sure that they did a commendable job. But just out of her line of sight, Sammy and Benjamin shared a furtive glance and nod.

Benjamin set down his paintbrush inside the can of green paint before pretending to yawn dramatically. He leaned back and stretched out his arms to either side, which put his right hand directly behind Hermione's butt, where her wand was stored in her back pocket. As stealthily as he could, Benjamin wrapped his fingers around the wand and slipped it out in one fell swoop. In the same motion, he let go of the wand and let it clatter on the floor underneath the table.

By the time Hermione took stock of the situation and had looked up and down the row of kids to see if any of them had moved, Benjamin had gone back to his original position, paintbrush in hand once again.

Brushing off her suspicion, Hermione got down on her hands and knees to retrieve her wand. When she straightened back up, still on her knees, Hermione was holding her wand up. That gave Torics the perfect opportunity to snatch it out of her grasp, which he did with a large grin on his face.

"Hey!" snapped Hermione. "Give it here!"

She had turned her back to Benjamin, providing another perfect opportunity.

Quietly, Benjamin picked up his open can of green paint and moved it directly over Hermione's head. Hermione, meanwhile, kept her gaze trained solely on Torics, whose grin had grown even bigger, but Hermione thought it was just because he had stolen her wand.

Only when Benjamin turned over the can, allowing the green paint to cascade down upon an unsuspecting Hermione, did she realize the reason for Torics' expression.

Hermione remained frozen in shock as the paint poured all over her, dribbling down her face, soaking her hair and heavily staining her white blouse.

_Of all the days to wear white!_

Just as Hermione was about to get to her feet, her vision was completely obscured as something hard came down to engulf her head. It didn't take her long to figure out that Benjamin had put the empty can around her head. Immediately, Hermione desperately raised her hands to start trying to pull it off.

"You little brats!" she managed to say. But she could only imagine how muffled it sounded to the kids, whose laughter was filtering through the can with no problem.

After she said that, and thus got a taste of paint in her mouth, Hermione felt another cold wave of the substance overtake her from the front, and the force of it was powerful enough to knock her on her back. Cheers were now mixed into the laughter.

It took a few more moments of struggling before Hermione was finally able to remove the paint can from her head and when she did, she noticed that the kids had all scurried away from their seats. Looking down at herself to take in her state, Hermione discovered that the new paint she'd been splashed with was orange, and in some areas, the green was still visible. Underneath the vibrant layers, the normal colors of her clothes were now no longer apparent. Not only that, but the paint was quickly seeping through her clothes and onto her skin.

Shakily, Hermione hauled herself to her feet, and that's when she noticed that somewhere amidst the sudden burst of chaos, one of the kids had removed her shoes and socks.

"What the …?"

She didn't have much time to dwell on the reason why, however, because another wave of paint soon surprised her from the back, causing Hermione to gasp. The kids' laughter resumed as Hermione flecked dripping paint from her arms and wheeled around.

The kids had placed a mirror directly behind her, and Hermione got her first good look at her current appearance. The color she'd been splashed with from behind was yellow, and her entire back side was coated in it. Her hair and face, meanwhile, were completely green. The green dribbled down her neck and was occasionally spotted amongst the curtain of orange that covered her from the neck down. There was not one clean spot on Hermione's person.

"That's a good look for you," chuckled Torics, who still had Hermione's wand and was flaunting it in front of her very mockingly.

"You're going to look even _worse _once I'm through with you!" growled Hermione before she took a few sharp steps forward.

But there was still a streak of yellow paint on the floor, and with her being barefoot, Hermione slipped comically and landed in the paint streak so forcefully, it sent her sliding down it. She screamed as she did so, until her feet made contact with the door leading into the connecting bathroom. The door had already been ajar, so Hermione slid through the doorway enough so that the awaiting can of blue paint that had been positioned atop poured down onto her perfectly. Hermione attempted to shield herself by putting her hands up in front of her face, but it did no good. After the paint had finished pouring, the can thudded down with irony on her crotch.

"Oooooh!" she moaned.

The kids were howling with laughter, and even stomping their foots on the floor.

After rolling around a little in the blue paint, Hermione struggled upright on wobbly legs and carefully stepped back onto dry floor.

"Why so blue?" taunted Barrin, which harkened back to what he'd said to her after the prank at the Mini Ministry that had landed her on the front page of The Daily Prophet.

"And orange?" said Torics.

"And yellow?" asked Lori.

"And green?" added Benjamin.

"And pink?" declared Miles.

Hermione looked over at him in confusion. "I'm not -"

She stopped once she realized where Miles was standing. He was in front of a shovel which was angled against a stool so that the handle was sticking up in the air and the trough was on the floor on the opposite side. And in the trough was another open paint can.

"Heads up!" Miles shouted before he pulled down on the shovel's handle, thus sending the paint can into the air. The pink paint left the can in a large arc, and as if in slow motion, Hermione watched as it curved downward until it all splashed onto her with a discernible _splat! _She screwed up her face once it came into contact with her body.

While the kids continued to laugh, Hermione resigned herself to simply wiping away some of the paint from her eyes.

"WHERE ARE THE TOWELS?" she barked.

Still shaking with laughter, the kids managed to point toward a rack used for storing art tools. At the top of the rack was a shelf that held three folded towels, and after five different coatings of paint, Hermione felt like she needed all of them. She was so focused on getting clean, that the issues of reclaiming her wand and there possibly being another trap waiting for her never came to mind.

So Hermione was genuinely surprised and angry when the act of her pulling on the towels triggered the overturning of yet another paint bucket, which had been hidden on top of them. This time, she was showered with red paint, which splattered all over her face and front with enough force to knock her on her bum. As if that wasn't enough, the red paint had already pooled under Hermione's feet, causing her to sit in the mess with a loud plop as the can clattered to the floor in front of her.

At this rate, Hermione figured she'd need a good two hours in the shower to properly clean off.

After three failed attempts to stand which sent her tumbling back into the paint, Hermione finally struggled to her feet and stayed balanced. "ENOUGH!" she yelled.

"Mmmm, not quite yet!" laughed Bruno.

He waved Hermione's wand mockingly, then directed it at something at his feet. It was another paint can, which Hermione noticed with a dropping stomach.

"The final color of the rainbow!" Bruno announced before he used the wand to make a jet of purple paint shoot out from the can into Hermione's direction.

There was no time for Hermione to move or say anything. The paint collided with her body with all the power of water streaming out from a fire hydrant, and it sent her sliding backward until she hit the rack, which collapsed in around her. After what felt like a minute, the paint finally stopped.

Hermione took a moment to compose herself amidst all the jars, paintbrushes and other items that were scattered all over her paint-coated form before she crawled back out into the main room.

The kids took one look at her and burst out laughing again. Hermione growled and was about to scold them when the sound of a turning doorknob made everyone freeze. Even before the door had finished opening, Bruno waved Hermione's wand, making all the paint stains on the floors and wall disappear and then tossed it so that it rolled and skidded to a halt in front of her knees. The kids all hurriedly retreated back to the table.

The voice and face that came inside were the last ones that Hermione wanted to hear and see right now.

"Miss Granger? I hope I-"

Mrs. Fogg stopped upon seeing Hermione in her current state.

"What … what happened to you?"

Hermione aimed a shaky finger at the kids. "_Them!_"

The kids all turned around as one. "We were just finishing painting this sign," said Benjamin as he, Sammy and Torics all collectively held it up. True to his word, and quite shockingly for Hermione, the sign had indeed been finished. It was then that Hermione spotted the open paint cans on the table … the extra cans from the closet.

"Yeah," added Torics. "But for some reason, Hermione was trying to distract us by pouring paint all over herself. It was right after we said we didn't need help. It looked like she was having a tantrum."

Mrs. Fogg looked back over at Hermione with a raised eyebrow. "Well, the sign looks lovely, children. Good work. Now, why don't you all take it to your classroom while I have a word with your teacher?"

The kids all quietly complied, carrying the banner out the door. Once they passed behind Mrs. Fogg, they all stuck their tongues out at Hermione.

"Mrs. Fogg," Hermione began desperately as she got up, "I can explain everythi-"

Mrs. Fogg held up a hand to silence her. "I'm not that interested in hearing it. I just came by to inform you of something. The Education Board has been very curious about your progress with these kids. Well, the entire school's progress, to be exact, since this is a whole new system. That's why, in two days' time, each class will be taking a short and simple test on what they've been taught so far."

"Oh," Hermione said meekly as she tried to count the times her class had actually been learning in-between all the pranks. "How, er, wise."

"Yes, it's nothing too difficult. As long as your students have been on track, everything should be fine." Mrs. Fogg gave Hermione a last once-over before departing while saying, "You should get cleaned up before going to work on the display for Lunch." Her expression and tone were unreadable.

Hermione sullenly trudged back to her room, too preoccupied with what she had just been told to notice what the kids were doing. She only noticed her shoes placed outside the bathroom door, and she scooped them up as she entered to take a shower.

The silver lining of the situation, however, presented itself during the long stretch of time Hermione spent under the running water. If the kids had been too busy pranking her to do much learning, then perhaps she could use that as proof.

On the other hand, after the events of the Mini Ministry, Hermione couldn't afford any more public humiliations because of these kids. That meant that tomorrow's test was more important for her than anyone else.

Hermione, finally squeaky clean again, stepped out of the shower and got dressed in the spare clothes she'd wisely hidden away for occasions such as this.

She tried not to think how her plan of getting Mrs. Fogg to believe her about her pranking kids had gone wrong. She wouldn't waste time being offended by Mrs. Fogg dismissing her explaination. Right now, she needed to get her class to finish the work. If anything, she believed she'd finally get them back on track when it came time for the test, but there was still another opportunity to prove to the school, and if she really had it her way, to the world, that these kids were evil.

There was a note waiting for her on the table when she went back into the room. It read as followed:

_Ms. Granger, after you have tended to yourself, please make your way to the cafeteria where your class will be working on the sandwich display. I have already escorted your class there._

_-Mrs. Fogg_

The fact that she had not bothered to tell her this in person told Hermione it was unlikely she'd be able to get her to believe anything she said.

_I just have to get her to see it with her own eyes!_

Hermione looked at her wand and thought the safest thing for her to do was to leave it behind, lest it end up in the hands of one of the brats or she lost control of herself and curse them into oblivion. So after she found a safe place to hide it, she headed down to the cafeteria.

As promised, her class was already waiting for her. They were seated on the floor in a line where the tables would usually be instead of pushed off to the side. They looked up at her with huge grins. Also waiting for her with her back turned in her direction was Mrs. Fogg. She turned around, but did not meet Hermione with a smile.

"Well, it looks like you've readied yourself," Mrs. Fogg noted.

_There is no readying one's self when it comes to these kids!_ she thought angrily.

"I've already had my workers load in the supplies you'll need for this part. It's really quite simple. All your class has to do is make a sandwich," she said while gesturing toward the supplies.

Hermione looked and saw yet another set-up for what could obviously become a messy situation, that would be as messy if not more than her experience with the paints. There were six large gray tubs positioned besides several large scoops, pitchers, and spatulas, and two giant pieces of bread that looked big enough to be of normal size to a giant. Hermione stepped forward and saw that three of the tubs contained peanut butter, while the other three contained what she had to assume to be grape jelly. She reached out a finger and poked the bread, which momentarily left an imprint.

"It's not real bread of course," said Mrs. Fogg.

"Of course," said Hermione.

"But it has almost the same consistency. Your class, however, will be using real peanut butter and jelly. You don't have to use all of the tubs. Two of them are extras. When they are done, simply come to my office, and we'll load it onto the display over there."

Mrs. Fogg pointed to a glass shelf on a table that was slightly tilted forward, and was near the display board that was posted with the lunch menu and any other information the kids needed to know. There was a space above the shelf where the kids would hang the banner. When other classes entered the cafeteria, it would be the first thing they'd encounter before heading in line to get their lunches.

"I'm considering getting another class to work on creating a milk carton to go with it. That peanut butter is sticky enough to require it. Anyways, I'll leave you to it." Mrs. Fogg turned, but not before leaving Hermione with one last warning. "Oh and Ms. Granger, no funny business."

"Yes, ma'am."

"I expect you to take this seriously enough to present a proper display."

"We will give it our all," Hermione offered, but Mrs. Fogg didn't look convinced.

She turned and left Hermione to whatever horrors could come from such a simple project.

"Well, you heard her," she said sternly. "We are making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." She was interrupted by their verbal expressions of delight. "I realize this gives you yet another excuse to ruin things for me, but as Mrs. Fogg said, we are to present a proper display. The minute any of you try anything funny, I am cancelling the whole thing and sending you back to your room! Got it!"

The kids nodded.

"If Mrs. Fogg can get another class to make a milk carton, she can get another class to make the sandwich. Now then, I don't believe we'll need the extra tubs."

She headed toward the supplies and began to push one of the extra tubs of peanut butter out of the way, while completely missing the exchange of winks happening between her class. After Hermione moved it out of the way, she moved aside an extra tub of jelly. She kept sneaking glances at the kids to make sure they weren't up to something, but they never moved. They simply watched her quietly.

Hermione took a moment to consider what was left and decided things would be less messy if they only worked with one tub of peanut butter and one tub of jelly, so she moved two more tubs off to the side. Now the kids only had one tub of each. She didn't worry about them being able to get to the extra tubs as they were much too heavy for them to push over.

"Now then...I suppose we'll get started." Even though she'd cleared away the risk to herself, she still didn't feel too confident. "You all can come over now. Grab a spatula or scoop. One of you help me with the bread! And don't eat any of that peanut butter or jelly!"

"Man, what a bossy pants," Barrin complained under his breath to Bruno.

"Not for long," he answered, with a sly smile.

For the most part the kids did follow her commands, much to Hermione's surprise. Lori led some of them over to the scoops, spatulas and pitchers and began to hand them out while Hermione worked with Barrin, Torics, Sammy and Miles on moving the bread slices into place.

"Alright. You guys can spread peanut butter on one slice, and jelly on the other. I want you to split into two groups of five, that way we'll get it done faster."

Again, the kids followed the order, which caused Hermione to reconsider finding a way for Mrs. Fogg to catch the kids. Barrin, Torics, Sammy, Miles, and Lori formed the group that would handle the peanut butter, while Aggy, Alice, Bruno, Tony, and Ben formed the group that would handle the jelly.

Hermione made no objections to the way they broke themselves up. She simply monitored them as they began to scoop their choosen condiment onto their specific slice of bread.

"It's so sticky," said Lori who pulled up a good scoop full of peanut butter and dumped it onto the bread.

"Just be careful not to get it everywhere," said Hermione. "Keep it on the bread."

"Oh! Hermione! We need help!" cried Aggy who was licking at the jelly on her fingers.

"I told you not to eat that!" Hermione scolded.

"Don't worry, we can't possibly eat a whole tub," said Bruno, with a laugh.

"Come help us," said Alice.

"No!" Hermione said firmly. "You are to do it yourselves. If it's too much work for you then good! It'll serve as a punishment for your, AAAHH!"

"For our aaahh?" asked Tony.

Something had struck Hermione from behind with enough force to surprise her. She turned and saw a glob of peanut butter splattered on her butt. She immediately found the culprit to be Barrin who was waving the empty scoop in his hand and giving her a broad smile.

"Gives a new meaning to the term peanut-_butt_-ter." The kids laughed out loud.

"I thought I made myself perfectly clear when I said AAAHH!"

Again Hermione was caught off guard when she was struck from behind, and this time the target was the back of her head. She raised her hand and felt something gooey clumping to her bushy hair. She spun around and met Aggy who had just finished launching jelly her way.

"No, we heard you loud and clear when you said AAAHH!" chortled Miles.

"Aggy! Peanut butter comes first," said Barrin.

"I don't think it really matters, do you?" she questioned.

"Nope," he said after a beat.

Without even needing to converse with one another, the kids began to fill up their scoops, pitchers, and spatulas.

"FREEZE! All of you!" The kids froze themselves just when they had been ready to launch. "If I get one more glob of peanut butter or jelly on my person, you'll _pay_ dearly. Now I know you're not willing to take that chance, are you?"

The kids exchanged several looks between themselves before Barrin yelled out, "FIRE!"

Globs of peanut butter and globs of grape jelly flew through the air in perfect arcs and nailed the target. Hermione couldn't keep up with the one-sided food fight as she was smacked in the back and front. The condiments were exploding on her chest, arms, stomach, and legs, but her butt was the favored area of impact.

She tried swatting as much of it away as she could and even tried dodging hits, but it was impossible considering they weren't launching all at once. There were no breaks in-between for her to catch a break, and she was quickly getting covered.

"Get the other tub!" Tony shouted.

Hermione believed she had them there as the other tubs would be too heavy for them to bring over. She didn't count on the power of teamwork as a group of five of them were able to push one closer. At last she had gotten something of a break with only five kids targeting her, so she started to make her way to the ones bringing over the extra tubs. But she slipped, due to her peanut buttery feet. As soon as she hit the floor, she had a better understanding of just how sticky the peanut butter was. Not only did she nearly find herself glued to the floor, but to herself as well.

"Stop this...at...oonnnnwww." Sammy had jumped before her and poured a pitcher full of peanut butter over her head, which neatly ran down her face and into her opened mouth.

As she worked to remove it from over her eyes, she felt the heavy onslaught begin once more, which meant the kids were successful in bringing over the extra tubs.

She wasn't sure how long she struggled on the slippery floor, helpless to their attacks, but at some point she actually felt it stop. It was at a point where her body had become heavily layered in the stuff. She could sense the kids standing over her, though she couldn't properly see them or shout at them. The peanut butter and jelly combined was too thick and sticky for her to be able to form words.

"Are you ready with that bread?" she heard one of the boys shout.

"Ready! Let's make a sandwich!" someone cried back.

Hermione could barely feel the little hands over her body, but she did sense them rolling her across the floor. Hermione tried to make it difficult for them, but the peanut butter and jelly mixture trapped her to a point where she couldn't move enough.

The rolling stopped, and after hearing a countdown to three, Hermione felt a great big shove. From what she could see, they had just rolled her up onto one of the slices of bread, which was already thickly coated in peanut butter. As if it wasn't enough, the kids began to dump more of it on her. She tried to pull herself up, but she was stuck.

"And last but not least," said Aggy as she and the jelly group began topping Hermione off with more jelly. If someone had walked in on them, they would have never noticed the human shape on the sandwich as the kids had made it disappear.

_When I get out of here, the only sandwiches they'll be getting are mud!_ She was quickly growing tired of struggling for escape.

"Now to top it all off!" Bruno yelled.

Hermione's movements came to a complete stop as the second slice of bread was pulled on top of her. It didn't help that it had been previously coated in jelly. With the thickness of the substances and her body raising up the bread, she was able to get something of a view through the long slit the sandwich gave her.

"And that is how you make a sandwich!" Barrin cried, causing the others to laugh and cheer. "Someone go get the principal."

_Yes! Get the principal! So she can see what you've done to me!_

Hermione wasn't sure how much time had passed before she could see a new set of legs come into her field of vision.

"Excellent, excellent work children. It looks so yummy I could eat it," said Mrs. Fogg. "But you didn't have to use all the tubs."

"We wanted to make it extra delicious," said Torics.

"It's going to be seen by everyone!" said Alice.

"Well it's definitely a sandwich to be proud of." She paused and looked around. "Where is your teacher? I don't see her anywhere."

"Oh she had an important lunch date," said Lori. The others snickered behind their hands. Mrs. Fogg folded her hands onto her hips and frowned.

"Well, if that isn't the most irresponsible thing I've ever heard. I'll just have to have another talk with her. In the meantime, let's plate this sandwich."

After giving herself enough of a rest break, Hermione took to trying to get Mrs. Fogg's attention through moving. She could only assume the bread hid her too well for movement to show through. Instead she felt a vibration through the sandwich which could only mean she was being lifted, via wands, to the display. A small thump told her she had been set down, right side-up with her lower half tilted on the angled part of the display. She could barely hear Mrs. Fogg telling them they needed to clean up the cafeteria before lunch. She did, however, feel something press against her butt, and knew one of the kids had deliberately pressed down on the bread in that area.

When lunch time rolled around, the Hermione PB&J sandwich was the biggest attraction. Kids were flocking up to it before and after they received their lunches, and of course Hermione's class received much praise for it. Hermione made attempts to move and gain attention, but the only thing she was receiving was pokes and pats as little hands reached out to touch the realistic sandwich.

Hermione wondered if it would be better to be eaten by a hungry troll than to put up with the class any longer. Considering the way she was trapped, she was sure she'd be a PB&J sandwich forever, but that would leave the kids without their _favorite_ teacher.

After hours of lying flat in the mess, Hermione saw her view widening. The weight of the top bread slice was lifted. She felt some freedom, especially when hands grabbed onto her ankles and pulled her off the lower piece of bread. Hermione slid onto the floor with a messy plop. At last she was able to gain some control of herself, and she used that control to wipe away the excess mess from her face. She did her best to glare at her class which was standing around her with their backpacks on. Clearly she had been lunch until the end of the day.

"You make a good sandwich, Hermione," said Barrin after running his finger on the bread and tasting it.

"Even though it wasn't fat free," said Lori.

"See you tomorrow!" cried Bruno.

They kids happily skipped out of the cafeteria. Hermione removed more of the PB&J from herself and slung it aside.

"DDIZZZ...EEEAANNZ...ORRR!" she cried as best she could with a sticky mouthful of what had unfortunately become her lunch for the day.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: I just want to point out that this chapter, along with the next one and the second half of the previous one, was written by my awesome co-author, Blackwolf-20. I couldn't be happier with her contributions!**

**Anyway, enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter 18**

Hermione entered the classroom after lunch with a scowl present on her face and a briefcase clutched in her hand. She was in no mood to deal with her class, but then again, she was _never_ in the mood to deal with them. Still, she was determined to somehow gain the upper hand. It wouldn't happen today, though, as she needed to start a lesson on magical creatures.

"Good morning, Hermione," the class chimed. Some of the kids giggled afterwards.

Hermione turned up her nose at them and proceeded to the front of the class. Right away, she noticed a crude drawing of herself with an enormous butt taped to the blackboard. Hermione fumed and even cringed as she heard giggles and high fives behind her. She pulled it down, trashed it, and decided she wasn't going to let them get to her today, especially after hearing that Mrs. Fogg had been successful in getting another class to create the giant milk carton for the cafeteria's sandwich.

"Alright, class. Today, we will be learning about magical creatures." She paused as she lifted the briefcase onto the desk and opened it.

"We don't want to learn about animals!" Barrin shouted.

"We wanna _see_ some!" shouted Lori.

"Yeah, let's go to the zoo!" Tony said.

"Let's have Pet Day Part Two! I want to bring my dog again," said Benjamin.

"No!" Hermione said sternly. "You will be doing your lessons. Mrs. Fogg informed me that you will have to take a test on what you've learned so far. It'll be a simple test, but you'll still have to-"

"We're not taking any test!" Barrin declared.

"Yeah, we're smart. We don't need it," said Aggy. The others nodded in agreement.

"You could've fooled me. I never thought any of you were very bright, considering the dumb pranks you pull."

"What?" cried Torics. Alice and Sammy started booing her.

"I'm gonna tell my daddy you called us dumb!" Alice warned.

"Go ahead. Then I'll explain why I said it by telling them what you've all done to me." Hermione smirked, feeling she had them.

"You can't prove it."

"Can't I?" she asked Barrin slyly. She turned at pointed at a camera in the room. "I've set up several cameras in this room."

"When did you do that?" Barrin asked dramatically. The sarcasm he mixed in went unnoticed by Hermione.

"It doesn't matter when!" Hermione felt her cheeks grow hot as she thought of the day it backfired when the tapes captured her naked. "They're still rolling and catching everything you do. So if I were you, I'd behave myself."

When she saw them settling down, she proceeded to pull out poster-sized cards for the lesson, which caused her to miss the mischievous winks passing from one kid to the other.

"Now, I thought we'd start off by learning about the-"

"Zoo!"

Hermione sighed as she was interrupted again. She looked up and saw Tony standing.

"Let's play zoo!"

"What better way to learn about the animals than from a zoo?" said Miles.

"We are _not_ playing zoo! We are learning!" Hermione declared, but her orders were ignored.

"But we need animals," said Aggy.

"We _have_ animals Aggy," Tony said with a grin. "Right there." He pointed at Hermione who placed her hands on her hips.

"Very funny. Now I'm not going to tell you again. You are going to study for your test. No more monkeying around."

In response the kids laughed.

"Hermione's right," said Barrin. "The only one who should be monkeying around is her."

Hermione was too busy glaring at Barrin to notice Tony raising a small stuffed pouch from his bag. When she did notice, she opened her mouth to question it, but he threw the pouch, which exploded on her and caused orange smoke to cloak her form. Hermione started to cough, but once the smoke cleared, she could hear laughter ringing in her ears.

_Those little brats!_ she thought angrily. "_Wait til I get my hands on you! That is the last time you'll be using magic on me!"_

As soon as the words she thought she used left her mouth, she realized something was wrong with her voice. But she noticed there were more things wrong than her voice. For starters, she was a lot shorter than she had been a while ago, and the kids were pointing and laughing at her.

"It worked!" Tony yelled. "My brother's powdered beast brew worked!"

"How many of those do you have?" Barrin asked.

"I could only sneak away eight of them," Tony replied. "But I don't know what kinds they all are."

"Well, we know what kind _that one_ was. Hey, Hermione! Did you do something with your hair? Cause it's all over you," said Aggy.

_"Huh? What are you talking about?"_ There it was again.

"Sorry, what was that?" Barrin asked while cupping a hand over his ear like an old man. "Can you speak English?"

"Here. Take a look at the first member of our zoo. You!" said Tony. He brought over a mirror, and Hermione felt her mouth drop open in shock.

There wasn't a girl staring back, but an ape; more specifically a chimpanzee, and without her clothes. Hermione shrieked and waved her hairy arms. She screeched like a mad monkey while the kids laughed like hyenas.

"I think Hermione dropped down on the evaltion scale," said Lori.

"It's evolution," Miles corrected. "But her old self was further down than a chimp."

"Hey, Hermione!" Sammy taunted. He moved forward, with a banana in his hand. "Banana. Ba-nan-a."

"That animal shouldn't be running around!"

Everyone turned to see Alice climbing onto the desk with Hermione's wand in her hands, which were resting on her hips. She tapped her foot as she mocked Hermione's serious tone, which caused the kids to grin.

"That animal should be behind bars."

_"You're the ones who belong behind bars!"_ Hermione thought angrily as she made to scamper after Tony.

"Uh oh, Tony! Run!" cried Torics. "You don't want a monkey bite."

Tony ran, waving the banana in the air while Hermione gave chase, making it look as if Hermione was in pursuit of the fruit. The others cheered as they watched. Alice continued to portray the once-human Hermione as she scowled at them from on top of the desk. After a moment, she looked down at her butt and dropped a hand next to it.

"My students are right. I _do_ have a big fat butt!" she said.

_"Change me back, you little weasels!"_ she cried, even though she knew they couldn't understand her.

While Hermione was busy running, Torics reached into Tony's bag and pulled out another stuffed pouch. Just as Tony found himself cornered with Hermione barreling right at him, Torics threw the pouch. It exploded on Hermione's back, covering her in pink smoke.

In place of the chimp, there was a medium-sized pink pig. Hermione came to a quick stop as she noticed her new body. She had hooves, a wet snout for a nose, big ears, and a curly tail. Now it was oinks replacing her screech.

"Hey, we can see your butt!" Barrin cried. "And it's bigger and pinker than ever before!"

"Here piggy, piggy, piggy," said Tony as he advanced on her. This time, it was Hermione who was being chased.

Several of the other kids joined in, trying to catch pig Hermione.

_I can't believe this!_ she thought, panicked. _They've gone mad!_

Hermione considered trying to escape the classroom, but there were two problems with the plan. One, she could not open the door when she had hooves for hands, and two, she was scared to think what the principal might do to her as a pig.

She was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't notice Benjamin coming at her from the side, with a thick blue blanket in his hands. He was able to trip her and quickly wrap her up.

"Anybody up for a pig in a blanket?" he asked the class. Hermione tried to squirm out of his grasp, but it was impossible. The kids were already gathering around her, however, as she continued to struggle.

"Actually, I'm up for a change," said Sammy as he threw another pouch on her. This time she was covered in green smoke, and instead of being a pig, she was now a frog.

Hermione croaked and the kids burst out in laughter.

"Mean and green," said Bruno as he reached down and picked her up.

Hermione could not imagine what could be worse than being turned into a long-legged slimy frog. She had never had an affinity for them and was glad she wasn't looking into a mirror.

"Eeww, she's all warty!" said Aggy as she dared for a closer look at her.

"Just like she normally is," said Torics with a laugh.

"We've captured the real Hermione alright!" said Sammy.

Hermione glared up at all the faces leering down at her while wishing she had been transformed into a puma so she could attack them.

_"When I get my hands, my human hands on you, you're going to get it!"_ Once again, her words were not understood.

"Here, Alice!"

Bruno shoved the frog her way, but she shrieked, causing him to loose his grip. Hermione used the opportunity to jump from his hands. So far, she had adapted quickly enough to her new forms, but her new frog form was the strangest.

_"I have to get to my wand! I have to try and reverse this!" _she told herself in an attempt to force bravery. Without trying to think about it too much, she hopped forward in the direction of her desk, which seemed like a long way away. Her movements were clumsy, but she managed amphibian mobility well enough.

"Leap frog!" cried Barrin and Bruno. The boys set themselves up for a round of leap frog next to Hermione's hopping form. It soon became a race with a cheering crowd.

_"THIS...IS...NOT...A...GAME!"_ she scolded in-between hops, in her alternate language. Still, the boys acted like it was, and were even gaining on her.

"There's no better learning device than Leapfrog," said Miles who was referencing a Muggle educational toy.

"Maybe she'll turn into a princess if you kiss her," Aggy said to Tony, who stuck out his tongue.

"It would be an improvement on how she normally looks," said Benjamin.

Hermione managed to make it to the desk first. The kids erupted in a small round of applause.

"Even though she's an icky frog, she's much better this way," said Aggy. There were nods of agreement.

"Well, it won't be for long," said Bruno.

He went for another pouch and Hermione did all she could to try and leap onto the chair.

"_Just...a little...more!"_ she cried.

But Hermione didn't get the chance, as yet another pouch came her way and managed to knock her away from her goal of the chair. She fell sideways and was covered in yellow smoke.

Hermione dreaded what she had been turned into now, but it was something that made the girls shriek with joy.

"I've always wanted one!" exclaimed Alice.

"Me too!" Lori agreed.

"Isn't she sooooo cute this way?" said Aggy.

Hermione snorted with indignation and looked down. She had become a lot bigger, and her fingers had become hooves once more. She looked behind her and gave a swish of her new silky tail. She had been turned into a pony.

"Where's my cowboy hat when I need it?" said Torics.

"Who cares about the hat? I want to ride it!" cried Sammy.

"Na-uh, me first!" said Alice.

"No me!" cried Lori.

"Hold your horses, guys," said Torics. "We can all have a turn."

As he addressed them, the others had been moving the chairs and tables out of the way. Hermione snorted in rage.

_"As if I'm going to let you ride me!"_

Hermione hurried out of their reaching fingers, but Barrin managed to jump onto her back after jumping off a table. The crowd cheered, and then Hermione went into a kind of bucking bronco behavior.

"Yee-haw! Ride 'em, Barrin!" Bruno cried.

No matter how many times Hermione bucked and shook, she couldn't get Barrin off her back.

_"THESE EVIL...TWISTED...MONSTERS!"_ Hermione neighed. Barrin had a tight enough grip to stay on. Hermione feared she might have to risk seeking out Mrs. Fogg even if she couldn't explain what the kids had done.

"Okay now it's my turn!" Lori whined.

"No, me first!" Alice argued.

"She's _my_ little pony!" said Lori.

"No, she's _my_ little pony!" Alice countered.

_I'm no one's little anything!_ Hermione thought angrily as she continued to struggle with Barrin on her back.

"Guys, don't fight," said Aggy. "She's all of ours, remember? We all get to have some fun."

"I'm up for some more fun," said Tony as he pulled out another pouch and threw it. "Barrin, heads up."

He slipped off just in time. The pouch connected with Hermione's skin, and this time it was deep red smoke covering her. When the smoke cleared, she could make out the disappointed sounds of both Lori and Alice. Hermione too made a disappointed noise, but it wasn't understood as she realized she had made yet another transformation. Hermione was distracted from learning what she had become because the kids were laughing harder than ever.

_What's so funny? What have they done to me now?_

She was a lot lower to the ground than she had been before. There was a rotten fish smell in the air, and she had a feeling it was coming from herself. Once Tony had gotten some control of himself, he walked up to her with a mirror in hand. Hermione would have screamed if she could have. From what she could see, she looked like a cross between a scorpion and an elongated crab with scuttling legs, and a thick, shiny grey armor for cover. She had been turned into one of Hagrid's most repulsive creatures-the Blast-Ended Skrewt! She couldn't imagine being anything worse.

"Tony, how'd you get that one?" Miles asked.

"My brother's friends with a lot of animal breeders," he explained.

"What is that thing?" Aggy asked.

"A blast-ended Skrewt," Miles told her as they watched Hermione struggle to move around.

"Why do they call it that?" asked Sammy.

"You're about to find out," said Tony as he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

Hermione was dismayed when she realized they were right. There was a strange rumbling happening in her new body, and it was traveling down to her lower end. The rumbling was causing her to shake, which alerted the kids to pay close attention.

_Oh no!_ she thought as she felt the heat rising in her rear. Hermione was partially distracted when she realized the kids were counting down.

"FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO ... ONE!"

Their count down was right on the mark as a bunch of sparks and a jet of flames shot out of her butt, propelling her across the room. The kids cheered as if she were some kind of rocket.

_'AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!'_

It was the one time her screams couldn't really be heard, but she knew it never mattered to her class as they felt such a joy at her humiliation.

"That's one hot butt!" Barrin shouted when Hermione finally landed. He had the others rolling on the floor.

_I've got to get to my wand!_ she thought, but her little crabby legs wouldn't allow her to move at the speed she desired. By the time she managed to figure out how to get a decent movement going, as decent as she was going to get as a beastly creation, she felt that familiar rumbling.

_Oh no! Not again!_

"Hey, it's happening again!" Torics pointed out.

"Here!" Aggy cried as she hurried over to Hermione with a hula hoop in her hand. The kids started their count down once more. Hermione made an attempt to hold it in, but she could feel it was out of her control. Shooting sparks and flames from her butt was a natural process for her now.

"FIVE!"

_Why is this happening?_

"FOUR!"

_What did I do to deserve this!_

"THREE!"

_When I change back..._

"TWO!"

_I'm going to kill..._

"ONE!"

_EVERY LAST ONE!_

"BLAST OFF!"

Hermione's butt issued a wonderful display of sparks and flames that sent her flying through the hoop Aggy had set up before her. Claps, cheers and whistles echoed around the room as she soared over them, along with the occasional laughing.

Hermione landed on the alphabet rug once again, and felt her legs crumble under her in exhaustion.

_Why...in this entire, magical world...would Hagrid create such an...absurd animal!_ she wondered.

"That was great!" said Bruno as he continued to laugh.

"Yeah," Tony agreed. "Uh-oh. School's almost out. Our parents will be coming soon."

"What do we do about her?" Benjamin asked. The kids moved over to the rug and stared down at their once human teacher.

"How long does it last?" Miles asked Tony.

"About nine hours," he answered.

_Nine hours!_ Hermione thought fearfully. _I can't stay like this for nine hours!_ The thought of shooting off all over the room with an ignited butt every so often was a reality she couldn't take. She would rather have been turned into a flobberworm.

"Awww, but I want to have more fun with her," said Lori. "Hey, why doesn't one of us take her home? Like a class pet."

"Great idea!" said Benjamin. "But we can't take a Blast-End Skrewt home."

"Blast-Ended," Tony corrected, "And I think I have another pouch that can solve that."

He wandered over to his bag and pulled out another pouch. Hermione didn't bother to escape it as she knew she would have no chance. Tony was able to walk right up to her. He pinched his nose and shook his head.

"Pe-ew, Hermione. You really stink like that. This will fix it."

She knew it wasn't the thing that would change her back into a human, as it covered her in white smoke. When the smoke cleared, Hermione was greeted with grinning girls. She didn't get a chance to discover what she had become, but she did know she had become something small, but a bit larger and apparently cuter than the Skrewt. Aggy reached down and picked her up. Hermione attempted to struggle, but she had a good grip on her body.

_Put me down you little-_

"Now all we have to do is decide which one of us gets to take her home," said Alice as she gave Hermione a wicked look of joy.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

It was one of those times where Hermione found herself not in the position she hoped to be in when the parents wandered in. Rather than smiling behind a desk like any average teacher with a normal class, she was glaring as best she could with her new look, behind the bars of a cage. Standing almost like guards before her was most of her class. The rest were gathering their things.

"Our parents should be coming in any minute. You think they'll really let me take her?" asked Alice.

"If they won't, then I do," said Lori

"Got that note ready?" Barrin asked Sammy, who was currently writing a short note that was meant to look like it was from Hermione.

"All done." He taped the note on the side of the cage, just as the parents started coming in.

The kids ran up to them, except for Alice, who waited for her dad to come to her.

"Hello, Sweetheart. Did you have a great day at school?" he asked her.

"The best!" she said with a big smile.

_Only because of me! _Hermione thought bitterly. Alice turned to her with a delighted look.

"Daddy, Hermione asked for one of us to take home the class pet for a day."

"That rabbit?" her dad questioned as he looked Hermione over. Hermione was hopping about in an attempt to get him to realize she was no ordinary brown bunny. He didn't appear to catch on.

"Well, we did a drawing, and I won. So can I take her home? Please, please, please! I'll take good care of her."

"I know you will, darling. Alright. You can take her home."

"Yes!"

_NO!_ Hermione squeaked. She could just imagine the horrors awaiting her at the home of one of these brats. Alice took the cage, and as Hermione was taken prisoner, she saw her class giving Alice thumbs- ups and mouthing congratulations. _This isn't happening!_

"By the way, where is your teacher?" her dad asked.

"Oh, she had to change for an important meeting."

She giggled and her fellow classmates gave quiet laughs as well as she, her dad, and Hermione headed out the door.

* * *

"Would you like some more, Ms. Bunnywunny? There's plenty to go around."

Alice pretended to pour tea from her teapot in a doll-sized cup that sat on a small white table with flowery designs that went with the rest of the play tea set. Sitting at the table besides Alice was Lori, three other dolls, and Hermione, who was dressed in a floppy yellow hat and a short, frilly, yellow dress that only covered the top half of her body. Hermione couldn't decide what was worse; being dressed in doll clothes at a tea party, or being dressed in doll clothes _as a rabbit _at a tea party. She decided there wasn't much difference.

Alice and Lori, too, played along by wearing old fashioned dresses. Alice wore red with a matching hat, while Lori wore a light blue dress. Together, the girls and Hermione and Alice's dolls looked like a group of proper old ladies accompanied by a gentleman in the form of a teddy bear.

Hermione could imagine how cute she apparently looked to them, and even if it wasn't clear on her face, Hermione was glaring the whole time.

"Drink up, drink up, Ms. Bunnywunny. You don't want to be rude," Alice voiced in near baby talk.

_I'll show you rude,_ Hermione thought angrily, _when I leave little dark droppings all over your room!_

She had attempted running, or rather hopping, away from Alice, but she was able to catch her every time. She had considered nipping at Alice, but was afraid of what her parents might do to her. Of course, it was possible they'd be upset enough to try and contact her human self about her rabbit self, and that would lead to her obvious disappearance. The kids would have no choice but to confess. On the other hand, they could spin it around by making her out to be an irresponsible teacher who abandoned her class, and that would be the end of her reputation.

Hermione couldn't take the chance. She didn't have her wand or any other way out until the spell wore off, which she knew was her best option.

Alice took a sip with her cup and then grinned.

"It was an enlightening experience in class today, don't you think?"

"It definitely was enlightening," said Lori as she too took a sip.

"Don't you think so too, Ms. Bunnywunny?" Alice asked Hermione. Hermione gave no response except to glare. "All the amazing animals, and the tricks they performed. Mr. Tubbles, you should have been there."

She turned to her bear and straightened his tie.

"Why, Ms. Bunnywunny, you're not eating your cake, and it's your favorite too. Carrot."

Hermione could just taste the anger coursing through her. Alice moved behind her and took hold of her furry arms. She then proceeded to move them as if Hermione were making gestures while she talked as her voice.

"No thank you, Ms. Langstrom, but I've eaten so much carrot cake, my butt is already triple the size it should be."

Lori laughed like crazy.

"And besides, I don't want to get any crumbs on my fluffy brown fur. Why, I'm already getting dirty and changing colors, like the many times you all coated me in magnificent paints."

Both girls laughed and Hermione growled.

"Then I suppose we ought to give you a bath," Alice suggested.

"LORI! Your mother's here!"

Both girls looked up at the sound of Alice's mother calling from downstairs.

"Guess I have to go," said Lori with much disappointment. "Good afternoon, Ms. Bunnywunny."

"Good afternoon, Ms. Becker," Alice said in Hermione's voice. She even waved her paw around.

Once Lori was gone, Alice looked down at Hermione and grinned.

"Time to clean up," Alice said, once more in Hermione's bunny voice.

_I'll clean you up, once I'm out of this suit!_ Hermione cursed.

The next humiliating place Hermione found herself in was a tub full of lukewarm water. Hermione put up such a struggle when Alice attempted to clean her that she called her mother to help out. Hermione had no chance of escaping as Alice began to rub the cloth across her fur.

"You'll look so much better," said Alice. "Much cleaner than you normally look."

"She's very precious," said Alice's mother. "I bet she's loads of fun in the classroom."

"You have no idea," Alice answered as she winked at Hermione, who growled.

After bath came more dress up, only Hermione was the one being dolled over. In the middle of Alice's fun and Hermione's torture, Hermione felt her stomach rumbling. For a minute, the experience of being propelled across the room as a Blast-Ended Skrewt came to her mind, but she knew she wouldn't be doing that. She was hungry, so Alice went of her way to cut up some carrots, celery, and lettuce.

Hermione was reluctant to give in, especially with Alice holding her like a baby and preparing to hand feed her.

"Come on, come on Hermione, you know you want it," Alice encouraged as she waved a piece of carrot in front of her. Hermione stared at it longingly.

"It's rabbit food, but it's not rabbit food," she told herself. Deciding she had no other choice, Hermione allowed Alice to hand feed her. Of course she also got thirsty, but rather than let her drink on her own, Alice bottle fed her.

After dinner, Alice attempted to get her to hop through a makeshift obstacle course, but Hermione wouldn't give in. Alice took it upon herself to pick her up and pretend to hop her through it, with Hermione sulking the entire time. Alice tickled her and brushed her, and even petted her. At one point Hermione slipped from Alice's grasp and managed to escape the room. Hermione felt the tables had turned at last when Alice and her family started chasing her around the house. All the while, Hermione kept thinking, _Freedom! Freedom!_, especially when she managed to slip into Alice's backyard.

_Right. All I have to do is hop my way home and wait for this spell to wear off, then-_

She was interrupted by the sound of barking. She turned and was met with a golden retriever that Alice had not bothered to bring on 'Bring your Pet to School' day. Hermione froze on the spot, as did the dog. She gave a twitch of the nose, and a twitch of the ears, before scurrying away for her life with the dog in hot pursuit.

Hermione did two whole laps around the yard before Alice scooped her up and saved her.

"Bad Maggie! Bad! Hermione is mine to play with."

The dog gave a few disapproving barks before returning to her dog house.

"Let's go, Ms. Bunnywunny. You've had enough excitement for one day."

Alice carried Hermione away, who was panting from exhaustion in her arms.

* * *

When Alice went to bed, Hermione found herself stuffed in the cage once more in Alice's room.

_I've got to get out of here!_ she thought wildly.

She quickly found there was a chance for her to escape as Alice had not locked the door, but an escape would still be a risk if she woke the girl. Hermione had a sneaking suspicion that Alice wasn't a sound sleeper. When she felt Alice was really in a deep sleep, she quietly pushed open the door to the cage and looked down from her position on the table. In her form, it seemed like a long way down, especially when there was no chair for her to hop to.

_I'll just have to jump. It's the only way_. Just as she prepared herself to do it, she felt a strange sensation vibrating throughout her body.

_Oh no! Not now!_

She had a feeling this was a sign of her changing back into her human form.

She was right, as her body began to stretch and grow. Since she was becoming too big for the edge of the desk, she fell forward and landed right on her face. She groaned and rolled onto her back. Hermione raised her paws before her eyes and saw that they had become hands. She looked down the length of her body and felt some relief that she was no longer furry. She was human again, but she was also completely naked.

"Of course I am," Hermione said miserably.

She rolled onto all fours and peeked at the bed where Alice was sleeping. She took a moment to glare at her and mutter curses under her breath before proceeding out of the room quietly. She made a plan to hurry to the bathroom and grab a robe or towel for cover, regardless of the fact that it was theft.

When she made it to the bathroom, she came across something she didn't expect. There were no robes or any sort of spare clothing hanging around, and the cabinets she knew contained towels were locked. Hermione was sure Alice had something to do with it, but she couldn't see how her parents would let her get away with it.

She growled in frustration and decided it was best just to leave as quickly as possible. She would have to use the cover of the night to hide her nudity if she couldn't use the cover of a towel or robe.

She made her way out the bathroom and down the stairs, all while praying her parents didn't wake up. She could just imagine what they would say.

She made it to the living room and risked glancing around for anything she could use to cover with, but saw nothing. She headed for the backdoor, unlocked it, and stepped outside.

The cool air greeted her, causing Hermione to fold her arms around herself, but she wasn't as concerned about it as she was about the idea of someone being around to see her. She stepped further into the yard and studied the fencing.

"Alright. I just have to hop that fence and make it back home before the sun comes up, and before people come out," she told herself, but it was easier said than done.

She took a few steps forward and that's when she heard the growl. Slowly, she turned around to see Alice's golden retriever Maggie, whom she had completely forgotten about. Hermione backed away slowly.

"Nice Maggie," she said gently, even though she was shaking with fear. "Good Maggie. I'm not here to rob you."

But Maggie didn't buy it. She barked and the chase was on. Hermione found herself nearly running in the same way she had as a rabbit the first time the dog chased her. In this case and the last, she had been naked, but she felt a lot more vulnerable without fur.

Maggie was getting close, but Hermione kept up her speed, all while keeping herself from screaming. She could feel the breath from the dog hitting her bare butt. And since she was so focused on protecting that area, she didn't notice a circle of rope lying on the ground in her path.

Her right foot hit it and the next thing she knew she was being yanked up into the air, upside down. Maggie barked and jumped onto her hindlegs to try and reach her.

Hermione looked up and realized it was a snare that had been set up next to a tree. She made a tentative attempt to shake herself loose, but the rope was tight around her leg. Panic didn't set in, as she was too furious at the situation.

All her emotions ceased when she heard the back door open and close. Hermione's heart froze as she feared one, if not both, of the parents were up. It turned out to be Alice, who had slipped outside wearing a pink robe and carrying a camera in her hands.

"Why you little...get me down from here!" Hermione demanded.

"Careful Hermione, not too loud," Alice warned. "You don't want mommy and daddy to catch you like this."

She started to laugh, and Hermione swung her fists.

"When I get down from here-"

"Who says you're getting down from there?" Alice asked. "Maggie. It's okay. Come on, let's go back to your dog house. You did a good job, yes you did."

Alice pulled out a leash from her robe's pocket and clipped it onto the dog's collar. Afterwards, she led her away. Hermione assumed she had taken her back to her doghouse. Hermione felt she was taking her sweet time with it, too.

When Alice returned, Hermione noticed she had come back with a small pink bike, complete with tassels, a bell, and a white basket. Alice rang the bell on it and smiled.

"Get me down from here!" Hermione demanded once more.

"Not so fast. I haven't given my demands yet."

"What demands? What are you talking about?"

In response, Alice lifted the camera and shot a few pictures while Hermione groaned. The pictures were produced instantly.

"Don't worry. This camera can capture night time shots," Alice said calmly.

"What was that for?"

"For you," Alice explained. "Here's the deal. I'll get you down and we call it a night, and for the rest of your time with us, you won't go to the principal, or to our parents whenever we decide to have a little fun. That includes no more cameras, too."

"You think I'm going to agree to that?!" she whispered loudly. By now she was starting to feel the dizzying effects of being upside down.

"I think you should, otherwise I'll have to get my mom and dad to come see what Maggie found in our backyard. And these," she paused and held up the pictures, "would look nice on the front page of the paper."

"You wouldn't!" Hermione growled.

"No I wouldn't, unless you agree to my terms. They'll get rid of you and your reputation will be over if this gets out, and you're much too fun not to have around. What do you say?"

Hermione bit her lip angrily, hating that she was actually considering this. If being held upside down, completely naked, in the backyard of a stranger's house wasn't humiliating enough, Alice's blackmail added to it. Alice waved the picture before her eyes and gave her a devious smile.

"_Deal,"_ Hermione muttered under her breath.

"Sorry, what was that?" Alice asked while cupping a hand around her ear.

"Deal," she said louder.

"Good."

Alice pocketed the pictures then walked behind the tree. Hermione felt a tug, then the next thing she knew she was crashing to the ground with a thump. She groaned again and sat up.

"I'm glad we could come to an understanding," said Alice. Hermione made to grab her, but Alice jumped out of her way and waved a finger. "Ah, ah, ah, I can still scream and alert my parents, you know."

Hermione fumed silently then looked away as she forced herself to keep her hands off the girl.

"How did you know I'd get caught in this stupid trap?"

"Well, for one thing, it's not a stupid trap. And for the next, I didn't," Alice answered. "I always have that trap there, in case of burglars. Now, you'd better get going."

She patted the seat of the bike.

"I'm not going anywhere without some clothes. And I'm _especially_ not getting on that thing."

"I'm afraid I don't have clothes that will fit you. I could wake my mom to see if she has some." She laughed at Hermione's reaction. "I think I'm being generous enough by loaning you my bike. How else are you going to get home? Take the Night bus?"

She didn't want to admit that Alice had a point, and she needed to get home before anyone else spotted her. Reluctantly, she grabbed the bike's handles. Alice practically skipped to the gate and opened it with Hermione following behind.

Alice extended an arm to let her know it was the way out. Hermione grumbled curses as she positioned herself on the small bicycle. The cold plastic seat met her bare butt when she sat down. Alice reached out and gave the bell a ring and Hermione swatted her hand away.

"This isn't over!" Hermione warned.

"It's definitely not over," Alice agreed. "When there's so much more fun we can have-with you."

Hermione gave a loud groan and then pushed the bike to a start with her feet. It was much too small for her, but she was able to fit well enough, if not uncomfortably, for the ride. She kept on the sidewalk while peering all around for any late night travelers. A few cars did pass by, but they were driving too quickly to notice her. For extra cover, Hermione found an alley to turn down, but that still wouldn't hide the shame of riding butt naked. The cool air tickled her in places she didn't want to be tickled in, and there were moments when she found it hard to steer the bike and actually crashed into a garbage can.

"I'll get them," she promised herself loudly, as she got back up. "One way or another. I'll get those little brats back!"


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

It was with aggressive force that Hermione dropped the last of the security cameras into the cardboard box which held the other ones. The tapes inside had already been removed and chucked onto the floor per the request of the kids, so that they could stomp the evidence to smithereens, which they did with considerable gusto. Afterwards, they not only made Hermione sweep up the remains, but also dump the cameras into the trash bin for good measure. The kids had insisted that this be the day's first order of business, unless Hermione wanted her latest nude photo leaking out. It took all of Hermione's self-restraint not to curse any of them during that period; she merely settled for silently steaming.

Not long after, it was time for the test. But the kids' reaction to the fact certainly was _not _what Hermione had been expecting.

"We're ready for it," Barrin stated firmly.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, taking on an expression that was a mix of surprise and suspicion. "You are?" She looked from one troublemaker to the other, searching for any tell-tale sign of trickery.

"Yeah," said Lori. "You see, we thought about it. Not taking this stupid test today would make you look worse in front of Mrs. Fogg. But it also would mean we'd just have to take it some other day in the future. So, it's best just to get it over with."

Lori's words left Hermione slightly stunned. _They really ARE clever. _To admit such a thing to herself gave Hermione the impulse to smack herself on the back of the head. She generally considered these kids to be of lesser intellect because of their obsession with juvenile pranks, but such comments reminded her that they had to be smart, given the detail they put into their torture methods.

_As long as they do actual work, then why should I be complaining?_

"Alright. But as usual with any test, if I see anybody cheating, talking or anything else of the sort during the allotted time, then it's an automatic zero for that person. Understood?"

"Yes," the kids chorused monotonously.

"I'm fully aware that word has diminished in meaning to you all recently," Hermione scoffed, "but at this point, I'll take what I can get. Now, take your seats, and we'll get started."

As the kids all sat, Hermione turned her attention to the stack of test papers that sat atop her desk, courtesy of Mrs. Fogg. This morning, Hermione hadn't even bothered trying to meet with the principal, true to her agreement with Alice. Regardless, Hermione did her best to brush aside those feelings of embarrassment as she aimed her wand at the papers and made them float out between the seated students, one test each being deposited in front of them of their own accord.

Hermione remained standing, with her arms crossed, until each test had been delivered. Once they had, she flicked her wand again, causing pencils to appear beside the papers.

"You have one hour to complete the test," she informed the class dryly. "Once you finish, come up and place your papers face-down on my desk, return to your seat and wait quietly until everyone else is finished." Hermione glanced over at the clock mounted on the wall, which read 9 o'clock on the dot. "Begin now."

Without any resistance, the kids all dutifully began scribbling away on the test papers.

Hermione kept surveying them for another extra minute before she made her way over to her desk chair, which was already pulled out slightly. Having by now been uncomfortably accustomed to the kids' modus operandi, this simple fact immediately inspired suspicion in Hermione. She quickly looked up at the kids, all of whom still had their attention focused on the test, but that didn't do anything to ease Hermione's feelings.

Gripping her wand tighter, she first traced the tip of it across the surface of the seat, checking for any icky or sticky substance that might have been spread across it. There was none.

_That doesn't mean anything, _Hermione told herself.

She noticed a thick and heavy book on her desk and purposefully scooped it up. With as much force as she could muster, Hermione threw it onto the seat, thinking the chair would collapse in on itself as a result of the kids loosening the screws.

But the chair remained standing.

Still undeterred, Hermione's next order of business was to crouch down and scan the underside of the seat for any zapping devices; she came up empty.

During all this, the kids never once looked up from their work.

_They obviously knew I'd expect something so simple, _Hermione reasoned with herself. _Their REAL prank is coming later._

The testing hour passed without incident, and each kid who came up to turn in their test subsequently gave Hermione a pleasant smile as if they were her best friends.

After the test was over, the day's focus turned to Spelling Lessons, and still, the kids showed no opposition. Throughout the lesson, though, Hermione made sure to keep watch on the kids out of the corner of her eye, anticipating sudden movements on their part which never came.

Lunchtime arrived sooner rather than later, and while the kids' attitudes became more lively during this period, their energy was still channeled into chatting animatedly with each other and laughing at jokes. Just how many of those jokes involved Hermione as the punchline, she couldn't be sure. Occasionally, one of the kids would look her way, smile brightly and wave ecstatically, and each time, Hermione was too taken aback to do anything in return but wave back.

_What exactly is their game here?_

That question plagued Hermione the rest of the day. Not only did it plague her, it also controlled her. Consciously, she kept her butt turned away from the kids whenever possible so as not to provide them with their favorite target. Every time Hermione had to walk to another section of the classroom to retrieve something, she not only kept a sharp eye on the floor space in front of her, but also the ceiling for any awaiting traps. Each time her suspicions were proven wrong, it only served to make Hermione even more on-edge.

It was now 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and despite numerous chances for pranks, they had not taken any of them. Finally unable to stand it anymore, Hermione abandoned her task of organizing the tests while the kids were drawing. She grunted loudly in frustration as she did so.

"Alright, enough!" Hermione exclaimed madly. "I can't take this anymore! If you're going to do anything, then just get it over with already! Stop playing games with me!"

The kids were silent for a few moments, giving the impression that they had no idea what their teacher was on about.

"Why, Hermione, whatever do you mean?" asked Aggy innocently.

"You know full well what I mean! You lot are just too devious to let one day go by without humiliating me in some fashion! We all know that you have _something _prepared for me, so go ahead and get it over with!"

Hermione screwed her eyes shut in anticipation of some substance, spell or object hitting her, but nothing happened. Cautiously, she opened one eye.

The kids had all gone back to drawing, acting as if Hermione had become invisible. Getting more confused by the second, she looked down at herself to see if her clothes had vanished from her body or anything, but no, she was still fully dressed.

The lack of pranks was now making her want to pull out clumps of her hair in irritation. "So, that's it, then? You've got nothing today? You don't want to stick me to my chair, put whipped cream into my bra, make me hobble around with my pants down or make my underwear shrink so that my private parts get tight?"

The kids all looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"That depends," replied Tony. "Do you _want _us to do any of that to you?" His tone was sly.

"Well…" Hermione was shocked at the level of detail she'd used. "No." Merlin help her if she'd just fed them any new ideas.

Tony smiled, flashing his teeth. "Well, that settles that."

He and the others returned to their work, and did so for the rest of the day. However, Hermione never let her guard down until each and every last one of her tormentors had been shepherded out of the room by their parents. Only then did Hermione slump graciously back into her chair, exceedingly grateful for a day without pranks.

There was a sudden knock on the door. Mrs. Fogg stood there, her face not as kind as it usually was.

Hermione bolted upright. "Mrs. Fogg! I-"

"I'm here to collect the tests," Mrs. Fogg stated sternly. She crossed the room quietly and quickly, taking the stack of papers in question into her grasp. "I trust everything went smoothly? No … _incidents_?"

Hermione shook her head vigorously, already feeling meek. "No, ma'am. None at all."

"Good. Now, there _is _one other topic I wish to discuss with you."

A feeling of uneasiness replaced the meekness. "Oh?"

"Yes. Tomorrow is Barrin Jones' birthday. And since he's a kindergartener, and therefore has a strong excitement for such a day, I've allowed there to be a little party for him tomorrow afternoon. I'd like you to supervise that party."

"Me?" Hermione paused uncertainly. "All by myself, or will there be other teachers there to help?"

Mrs. Fogg pursed her lips. "No, you will be the sole chaperone. The party will not only be for your class, but for the students in Mrs. Hopkins' class as well. Young Mr. Jones has quite a few friends in that group, you see. Anyway, I suspect this should be the perfect opportunity for you to prove just how capable and responsible you are around children, wouldn't you agree?"

_So she IS upset about the other day. Why wouldn't she be, though?_

"Er … yes. Yes, absolutely I do," Hermione responded hastily, even though she wanted more than anything to _not _have to chaperone the party.

Mrs. Fogg nodded curtly. "Very well. The party will begin directly after lunch tomorrow, in this room, and last until the end of the day. All I ask is that you keep the children sufficiently entertained during that time. I trust that shouldn't be too difficult?"

"No. No, it shouldn't." _Yes. Yes, it should._

On that note of finality, Mrs. Fogg turned on her heel and walked toward the door. But before she reached the threshold, the principal looked over her shoulder to deliver one last message. "If I were you, Miss Granger, I'd make sure to be well-rested for tomorrow. You'll most likely need it." She exited the classroom swiftly.

_I don't doubt I will_, Hermione groaned to herself, slumping down in her chair.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

It didn't matter how much rest she had received the previous night. It also didn't matter how great her skills were as a chaperone. Hermione knew none of it really mattered when it came to her _special_ class. Of course, there was the fact that they hadn't bothered to pull anything the day before, but there was the possibility that they were distracted by the test.

_No kind of work, whether test or school work, ever stopped them before,_ she thought as she watched them from behind her desk. But she wasn't so sure she could think such a thing any more.

So far, it had been a quiet, peaceful morning. The kids were acting like little angels, which Hermione knew they couldn't possibly be. Once again, she found herself glancing back at them more often then she should have, or checking favorite areas for traps. The only thing she received from them was a laugh or two and a few questions as to what she was doing. There was no messy substance coming her way; no wands to rip off her clothes; and most importantly there were no curses, substances, or little hands striking her butt.

As things had continued going so well, Hermione released a sigh of relief and relaxed.

_Maybe they're already tired of it, or they just can't think of anything else to do. _

Either way, she had more important things to concern herself with, like the birthday party for Barrin which would come right after lunch. Mrs. Fogg had stopped her that morning to give her some party decorations and to tell her Mrs. Hopkins would stop by to help decorate the class and bring in other party necessities, like the cake. That would require Hermione to miss out on taking the kids to the cafeteria, but another teacher offered to deliver them for her and bring them back to the surprise. Mrs. Hopkins would bring her class back and leave them with Hermione to celebrate with Barrin.

If there was anything positive about it, it was that there would only be one class joining hers. She checked the clock and saw that it was nearly lunch time.

"Hey everyone!" Hermione jumped with Barrin's sudden cry. She instantly looked all around for a sign of a sudden gag. "Today's my birthday!"

"It's your birthday?" cried Tony.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" asked Aggy.

"That's awesome. How old are you?" asked Sammy.

" Six," he said smugly.

The kids continued to congratulate Barrin while he grinned.

"Alright, alright, settle down," said Hermione.

"Hey Hermione, did you know?" asked Torics. The rest of the class turned to her.

"Well, you could say I did," she said with a grimace.

"Then we need to do something for him," said Alice.

"Yeah! Like a party!" said Torics.

"You really think you deserve a party, after everything you did to me?" Hermione questioned. How she wished she didn't have to throw a party. She turned to Barrin and glared as she felt he was somehow setting her up. Him mentioning his birthday and Torics suggesting a party made her suspicious.

"Oh come on, don't be so sensitive," said Bruno. "We haven't done anything to you for a while."

_A while isn't long enough,_ she thought angrily.

"I'm sorry, no." The kids' disappointed groans were music to her ears, but she knew she wouldn't be able to enjoy it for long. "Alright, it's time for lunch."

The class lined up just as someone knocked on the door. Hermione opened the door to reveal Ms. Thomas, another kindergarten teacher who would be escorting her class to lunch while she prepared the room for the party.

"Are they ready?" Ms. Thomas asked. She looked as if she was weary of Hermione.

"Yes, you can take them now."

"What? You're not taking us?" Barrin asked.

"Nope. So if you had something planned for me in the cafeteria, it's just too bad for you," she said sternly. At last, she saw the kids exchanging looks that told her they most likely _did_ have something planned in the lunch room. "Go on, then."

Once they had left, Hermione gave a big sigh before turning to the hidden boxes of party items. She was in no mood to do any of it, but she still made an effort as she levitated the "Happy Birthday" banner across the ceiling. She magically inflated several red, gold, white and black balloons and tied them in various places in the room. By the time she got around to rearranging the desks, there was another knock at the door. Mrs. Hopkins poked her head in and smiled.

"Are they gone? Is it safe?"

"Yes, they've gone," Hermione answered.

"Good." Mrs. Hopkins disappeared for a moment, then returned with a large sheet cake floating before her via her wand. "Where would you like me to set it?"

"I'm using some of the desks to make a table," Hermione explained. "Give me a minute."

"Alright, I'll help you." Mrs. Hopkins set the cake down on Hermione's desk, then proceeded to help her.

A dragon themed tablecloth was placed across the desks that were made to be the table, which now held the cake. The cake, Hermione saw, was half chocolate and half vanilla with fiery colored icing. "Happy Birthday Barrin" was written in purple icing and placed in-between two toy dragons that roared and sprayed sparks at each other. Much to Hermione's concern, Mrs. Hopkins brought in four tiki torches that stood on their own near the corners of the room. When she lit them, red and orange sparks erupted, making them appear as if them were flickering flames. She assured Hermione they were completely safe. There were a few more party decorations in one of the boxes, including something that looked like a piñata, but Hermione didn't want to over do it, so she pushed it out of sight.

Streamers were strung around the hanging banner, and plates and cups were laid down upon the student's desks. Hermione cautiously opened a box that released three small flying dragon toys that chased each other in an imperfect circle around the room.

"Barrin loves his dragons, but we couldn't bring in a real dragon, of course," said Mrs. Hopkins with a laugh.

"Really, I couldn't tell," said Hermione sarcastically.

"Oh yes. Mrs. Fogg told me so after she asked his parents."

Hearing this didn't make Hermione feel so confident in gaining Mrs. Fogg's forgiveness, as she hadn't said a word to her about Barrin's favorite things.

Once the room was done, both Hermione and Mrs. Hopkins left to retrieve the cherry punch, and the ice-cream from the teacher's lounge. The only thing that was missing, were presents. Hermione, of course, didn't believe Barrin deserved any, but Mrs. Hopkins did bring it up.

"Well, no gifts, but I do have a few games you can borrow. I'm afraid it'll be up to you to entertain them further."

"Of course it will," Hermione said under her breath.

Mrs. Hopkins brought in a few simple kiddy games, like a wizard's version of Twister, little brooms that levitated about three feet off the ground, simple card games, and a squishy ball the kids could play catch with. The last thing Mrs. Hopkins left Hermione with was a music player and a box of self lighting candles that played music.

"Well, it looks like everything's settled," said Mrs. Hopkins as they both surveyed the room. "Ms. Thomas should be back with your class soon, so I'll go and prepare mine. Good luck."

She left Hermione with a sense of dread growing in the pit of her stomach. This was practically her last chance to prove herself to Mrs. Fogg. She was so nervous, she started to pace.

"It's alright, everything will be fine," she told herself. "They haven't been pulling pranks, so, it's going to go fine. They have enough entertainment, so..."

She trailed off as she heard the heavy knock against the door. She heard Ms. Thomas call out her name. Hermione took a deep breath and released it.

"Here we go," she whispered as she opened the door.

As expected, the kids were quite surprised. They stood in the doorway gawking at their transformed classroom. It didn't last as they quickly hurried inside, cheering.

"So we _are _doing something!" cried Alice.

"I knew Hermione couldn't resist!" said Barrin who was grinning from ear to ear.

"Happy Birthday, Barrin!" cried Lori.

The others gathered around him to grant him the same greeting, then they scattered to check out everything laid before them while Hermione and Ms. Thomas watched from the doorway.

"You and Mrs. Hopkins did a fantastic job," said Ms. Thomas as she smiled at them. "I can tell they're going to have lots of fun."

"I have no doubt," Hermione admitted bitterly.

Ms. Thomas turned to her, and her smile dropped.

"I hope you're able to do well as a chaperone. If you do need help, do come to me."

"Um, I will," Hermione replied. She hated how Ms. Thomas, who was known to be one of the most soft-hearted teachers in the school, was looking down on her coldly.

"It shouldn't be a problem," Ms. Thomas said before turning away.

Just as she left, Mrs. Hopkins came up with her class. Her group of eight entered the room laughing and cheering, and quickly united with Hermione's class as if they'd always been together.

"Well, I'll leave the rest to you," said Mrs. Hopkins. "If you have any problems, or concerns, come and see me."

Hermione only nodded with a smile, but inside she detested that yet another teacher didn't see her as being capable of handling a party.

Mrs. Hopkins left, but not before telling her class to be on their best behavior and to mind Hermione. Her class agreed, so she left. Hermione closed the door and leaned against it as she faced a class of eighteen.

"Okay, everyone, as you can clearly see, it's Barrin's birthday." Hermione had to stop as they kids started cheering and congratulating him. "Yes, Happy Birthday Barrin. Now then, I want you all to know that while this is a party, I still expect you to behave properly. Is that understood?"

The kids gave a brief nod before going back to exploring the goodies. The music player was turned on and a small group began to dance around. A few of the others settled together to start playing some of the games or chase the flying toy dragons. The rest, including Barrin, were gathered around the cake. Barrin was hovering a hand over the cake as if he was about to dig in, and without a fork.

Hermione hurried over to stop him, but Lori did it for her.

"Stop! We have to sing Happy Birthday first."

"That's right, Lori," said Hermione. "Everyone, gather around. Gather around! We have to sing Happy Birthday."

While Hermione was busy making sure all the kids followed her instruction, Barrin, Lori, Sammy, Torics and Bruno gathered in a huddle.

"Since Hermione was nice enough to give us this party, what do you say we return the favor?" the birthday boy asked slyly.

"Absolutely," Bruno agreed. "She's here to entertain us, after all."

"What? What are you on about?" asked one of Mrs. Hopkins's kids who was nearby listening.

"This is kind of a _special_ class," Lori explained.

"Yeah, watch and learn, then follow our lead. You don't know how lucky you are to be in this class," said Barrin.

They broke their huddle just as Hermione ushered the last of the kids to the table. Barrin moved to stand before the cake while Hermione placed the candles. They automatically began to light. After all six were set, Hermione led the class as they sang 'Happy Birthday'. After the cheers and claps that followed the song, Barrin tried to blow out the candles, but the sparks kept changing colors. Eventually they went out, but not before performing a mini fireworks display which further delighted the kids.

"Wow, Hermione! You sure did a lot," said Barrin, "especially when you said you weren't going to do anything."

"I guess you can say I had a change of heart."

"So have we," said Bruno.

Hermione turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

She received her answer when something exploded across the side of her face. She gasped, but her surprise turned to anger when she realized it was cake that hit her. She turned to the culprit who turned out to be Barrin with the evidence of cake crumbs and icing in his right hand. He licked his fingers innocently.

"Yum! Chocolate."

"Why you-"

She felt another strike and this time it was at the back of her head. The incident with the sandwich was coming back to her. Sammy grinned as he raised his empty, frosting stained hands.

"I knew you hadn't changed! It was all an act. You don't deserve this party at all!" Hermione cried.

Her class simply started to laugh and began to throw more cake at her while Mrs. Hopkins's class looked on in stunned silence. They weren't sure what to make of this. A couple of Hermione's kids noticed and took it upon themselves to reassure them.

"It's alright, we do this stuff all the time," said Barrin.

"Yeah, we're professionals," said Miles.

"Professional pranksters," said Ben.

"And your teacher just lets you get away with it?" asked a blonde girl named Jane.

"She must be pretty lame," said a freckle-faced boy named Charlie.

"Yeah, she is," said Alice. "Go on, give it a try."

Jane reluctantly took a hand full of cake. She hesitated a moment before launching it and striking Hermione right in the face. The whole class went silent as it was one of the new kids who dared to cross Hermione. The silence was only broken by the noises Hermione made as she wiped away the cake from her face. The icing and cake had smeared all over her. When she cleared her line of vision, she looked directly at Jane in surprise.

"You?"

"Get her!" Alice shouted.

No one was holding back any longer. Everyone was throwing cake at Hermione, and it was getting everywhere. With so many more kids than ten, Hermione was finding it difficult to keep track of them or to stop them in any way. She thought about using her wand, but she realized someone had removed it from her pocket.

"Who...took, my...wand!" she demanded in the chaos of flying cake. In response, a pair of hands grabbed her arms and pulled her forward while another pair of hands grabbed her waistband.

_No! Don't show my butt to this class!_ she thought wildly. But they didn't pance her. They simply stuffed generous amounts of cake down her pants. She could even feel it in her underwear. Hermione shrieked and jumped up and down as if it was enough to shake the cake out of her pants.

Someone grabbed the front of her shirt and stuffed cake down into her bra. Hermione swung out her arms to capture Lori who was responsible for this part, but she missed the girl entirely.

Lori climbed onto the table where the last of the destroyed cake remained. Without thinking, Hermione jumped up onto the table in hot pursuit. While Lori missed the cake completely, Hermione slipped and fell face first on the cake's remains. Her humiliating fall created a great eruption of laughter, especially from Mrs. Hopkins' class.

"That was great!" said a boy named Jones.

"Mrs. Hopkins should have brought us to this class sooner," said another boy named Toby.

"And you don't get into trouble?" Janes asked.

"Nope," said Bruno with a confident smile. "We can't now, cause we have her word."

"What do you mean?" asked Toby.

"We'll explain later," said Barrin. "Right now, this is a party, and the entertainment's getting away."

They watched as Hermione struggled to make her way to the bathroom without slipping and slammed the door behind her.

"Alright, what's next?" asked Jones. The rest of Mrs. Hopkins' class came forward, eager to learn other ways to have fun with their teacher.

When Hermione left the bathroom, as clean as she could make herself, she found the kids engaging themselves in the Wizard Twister game simply known as 'Twist It'. There was a small, colorful disco like ball floating above them, projecting colorful circles on the floor which moved around slowly. Six of the kids were twisting to reach the different colored circles with their hands, knees, feet, and elbows. Bruno was standing on the desk with the spinner that directed which part of their body touched which circle, and called out the commands to them. Aggy tried to reach for a yellow circle with her right hand, but collapsed, causing Miles and another boy from Mrs. Hopkin's class to fall over. They didn't pout, but laughed at themselves.

"Oh, Hermione, you're just in time," said Aggy.

"I most certainly am, to end this party!" she shouted.

"Oh come on, don't you want to play?" asked Barrin.

Hermione was about to answer, but her body did it for her as it started to sway back and forth in a playful manner.

_What?_

She turned and saw that Torics had brought out the voodoo doll and was swaying it side to side.

_Oh no! Not that...that...dreadful...doll!_

Hermione was forced to place her hands on her hips, bend forward and shake her butt. It was the perfect timing as the song now playing on the player was, 'Shake Your Grove Thing'. Hermione was shaking her butt harder and in ways she couldn't imagine. The class was practically rolling on the floor. Hermione was dropped low to the floor, then brought to a standing position while shaking her butt up and down slowly. She did a cart-wheel and landed in the play area of the twister game.

"Let me! My turn!" said Barrin as he took over the doll from Torics.

Just then there was a knock on the door and Mrs. Hopkins poked her head in.

"Hermione, I thought I'd see how, oh my..."

She gasped at the sight of Hermione doing disco moves under the disco like ball. Hermione met her gaze with a similar stunned expression.

"Mrs. Hopkins, please..."

"Oh how fantastic! Showing these kids how it's done. The good old fashion dance moves never die."

"No, you don't understand!"

She turned to see which one of the kids had the doll, but she didn't see it in sight. They did, however, keep up her dance performance now that Mrs. Hopkins believed Hermione was doing this of her own accord.

"Well I'll leave you to it! Party hard everyone!" Mrs. Hopkins said before leaving.

"No! Wait!"

Hermione didn't get a chance to form more words as she was bent forward.

"Left hand red!" shouted Barrin.

Whoever had the doll moved Hermione's hand to one of the red circles. He called out the next command, and Hermione's right foot was moved to a blue circle. The next command required her left knee to hit a green circle. Hermione already felt herself wobbling, but the puppeteer made sure she didn't fall and kept her in motion with the moving circles.

"Twist it Hermione!" shouted Torics.

Her right hand was moved to a yellow circle. When a command called for her left elbow to hit green, she toppled over.

"Hey, watch this!" said Aggy as she raised Hermione's wand and pointed it at the circling toy dragons. They immediately changed course and started a beeline for Hermione's butt.

Little sparks greeted Hermione's rear. It wasn't enough to cause pain, but it was enough to startle her. She jumped up and started swatting them away, but they dove in and around her, breathing out sparks that targeted her in various areas and felt like little needle pricks.

"Stop it, you brats! I mean it!"

"I think things are just heating up," said Bruno as he secretly took down one of the tiki torches. When Hermione wasn't looking, he raised the sparking end to Hermione's end.

"Hey, what's that..." Hermione trailed off and looked down to see her pants sparking like a firecracker.

She screamed and jumped about, now realizing it was doing her no good. Though the sparks weren't as dangerous as real fire, they did create an uncomfortable, hot, prickling sensation against her butt. She had to get out of them, but to her horror, she saw she might not have to as the sparks were starting to eat up her jeans. The watching crowd cheered as Hermione hopped about while pulling off her shoes and attempting to get off her deteriorating pants.

She finally managed to and was left in her underwear as she collapsed on the floor in exhaustion.

"I'll show you," Hermione hissed through her teeth. "You can't get away with this."

"Speaking of show," said Bruno as he turned to the other class. "You guys need to see one of our best artworks."

Miles, Barrin, and Ben raced forward to hold Hermione down while Bruno and Alice pulled off Hermione's underwear. The draft hit her exposed rear instantly.

_NO! Not my butt! Again!_

Her cheeks became hot at the roar of laughter.

"We call it the Year-Butt!" said Miles proudly.

"That's great!" said a sandy haired girl named Emmie.

"And so creative," said Jones as he dared to pinch one of the eyes drawn on one of her cheeks.

Hermione cried out in surprise and got to her feet, but when she realized she was half naked in front of a group of new students, she crouched down again and tried to cover up.

"Alright, party's...OVER!"

"I don't think so," said Aggy.

"What now?" asked Charlie.

"It's time for another game," said Barrin as he pushed out the hidden box of party supplies. He patted the curious looking piñata object and grinned. "Courtesy of our teacher."

Hermione now recognized that the piñata object was in the form of pants, and she started putting two and two together. "Oh, no you don't!" She attempted to scramble away, but the three boys reaffirmed their vice-like grip on the teenager so that all Hermione could do was flail her bare legs. Aggy took the liberty to sit on her teacher's waist to help prevent that.

Barrin grinned like a madman as he came over and proceeded to put the piñata pants on Hermione. Lori, meanwhile, walked forward with a length of pink rope in her hands, which she started looping around Hermione's chest.

For the first time, Hermione tried playing the sympathy card. "Can't we just talk about this? Surely there's some other prank you'd…rather…pull?" The stupidity of her plea occurred to her as she said it.

"Did you _really _just say that?" cackled Barrin as he attached a hook on the rope to the waistband of the festive pants. He then took the wand from Aggy as she stood up, which allowed Barrin to magically lift Hermione into the air. The unused trail of rope instantly connected to the ceiling, resulting in Hermione dangling in the air like the human piñata she now was.

"Just wait until I get my hands on you!" Hermione snarled down at the party goers. She suddenly felt the voodoo force take hold of her once again, this time twisting her so that her butt was most prominent in this new position.

_Of course…my butt…it's always my butt._

"And just _you _wait until we get our batting sticks on your big ol' butt!" sneered Lori as she passed out what looked like multicolored pipes, only not made of lead. "Okay, everyone! Let's see how many hits it takes to burst that Bubble Butt!"

"No, wait-"

Hermione was cut off as the kids swarmed around her and mercilessly began whacking her rear with their weapons. The blows were cushioned somewhat by the candy she could feel lining the inside of the pants, but they were still hard enough to make her go "Ouch!" and "Oooh!" with every hit. She even spun around a little, but the kids followed her butt wherever it went.

It got to the point where Hermione feared that her butt would be black and blue before the day was done, but eventually there came one tumultuous hit, powerful enough to cause the pants to finally break apart. At the moment of contact, Hermione could see that it was Barrin who was the one to deliver the pants-shattering blow.

Hermione shrieked as she fell in the middle of a shower of candy, hitting the carpeted floor with an "Oooof!" She sensed the kids greedily snatching up the candy, and even a few spanks delivered to her upturned rear.

Such insolence made Hermione awkwardly get to her feet, her arms still bound to her sides making it difficult. "Stop this instant!" she yelled.

"But we're not done playing yet!" declared Tony, who was standing level with her on an adjacent table. "We still have to play Pin The Tail on the Dragon!"

"What?" asked Hermione as she turned around, only to have a blindfold get tied around her head. "Hey!" If she currently had the use of her arms, Hermione would have simply removed it, but for now, it was stuck there.

Soon after, Hermione felt a brief burst of pain on her rear, as if she'd been stuck with a needle.

"OOOOH!"

"Oh, did we not mention?" said Tony cheekily. "YOU'RE the dragon!"

"Get the dragon!" proclaimed Barrin as if it were a war cry. In retrospect, it was.

Hermione literally started running blindly around the room, not wanting to be poked with whatever it was that the kids were attempting to prick her with. Twice during the mad dash, she felt that same sharp pain, signifying just how fast these kids were.

But Hermione knew that running without a field of vision would come back to bite her on the butt, much like the other three pricks she felt. That moment arrived sooner rather than later when all of a sudden, she ran straight into what felt like the crumbly remains of the cake, the tray of which had obviously been held up just so she could run into it. Groaning, Hermione remained standing, her face and chest planted into the upright cake tray. This, of course, provided ample opportunity for one more prick of the tail.

"OW!

"The dragon has been defeated!" cried Miles.

"Not quite yet," said Barrin slyly.

_Oh, what now? _Hermione moaned to herself, giving in to that very defeat.

"I still need a present to unwrap! And I can't think of any better gift to receive than you, Hermione! You're just like a doll; so much fun to play around with!"

Before Hermione could say another word, she felt many pairs of tiny hands hauling her down to the floor, where she had the sensation of landing on some smooth, paper-like surface. It didn't take her long to catch on.

Not that she could physically resist all that effectively anyway, but Hermione still didn't put up a fight as she felt the wrapping paper whip into place around her body in a virtual whirlwhind. She could sense tiny airholes being punched in above the facial region, of which she was grateful for.

She assumed the wrapping had been completed, because she soon heard Lori speak again.

"Go ahead, Barrin! Open your gift!"

"Glad to!" Barrin replied.

The sound of ripping paper filled Hermione's ears and before she knew it, she could see again. Barrin had ripped open the paper that had been above her face, removed her blindfold and was now smiling down at her.

"Just what I've always wanted! A person thick enough to keep falling for my pranks!"

"You -"

Hermione was rolled onto her front, and she didn't need three guesses what for. The kids ravaged the paper until her butt was framed by it, leaving the rest of her body gift-wrapped.

"Quite the thing to unwrap!" Barrin cackled above the fresh outburst of laughter.

By this point, Hermione simply didn't have the stamina left in her to verbally protest the kids' actions. If this was to be her fate until she returned to Hogwarts, and she had been so unsuccessful in stopping it thus far, then was there really any point left in fighting back?

She let the kids unwrap the rest of her, until she was back down to just her top. However, there suddenly came knocks at the door.

"Quick! Get her in her chair!"

Hermione's lack of energy practically made her go limp as the kids all grabbed hold of her and dragged her over to her desk chair. They pushed her in to fully mask her lack of bottoms. Hastily, her bonds were removed, freeing her arms.

The classroom door opened, revealing Mrs. Hopkins, who was accompanied by a barrage of parents. Most of the little troublemakers immediately ran into their parents' arms, except for Barrin, who stood happily beside Hermione while two adults who Hermione recognized as his parents made their way to them.

"So," said Barrin's dad as his son came up to him for a rustling of the hair, "it seems you threw our son quite the birthday party." He took in the festive surroundings.

Weakly, Hermione managed a fake smile. "Yes. He definitely seemed very..._pleased _with it." She threw Barrin a furtive look.

"Well, good," piped up his mother as she traced a loving hand across his cheek. "We regret we were unable to get off work today, but we're happy he still had a lovely time on his day."

"Oh, I _did!" _Barrin squealed in delight.

His father stuck his hand out towards Hermione. "Thank you for the hard work." He genuinely seemed satisfied, which shocked Hermione.

All she could do was take his hand and silently shake it. "Er...it was no trouble." She didn't dare move a single inch, lest she accidentally show some of her lower bare flesh.

_I can't believe I'm thinking this, but this is a rare occasion where a Sticking Charm from one of those brats would come in handy. It would have made things SO much easier._

By now, all the other kids and parents had filed out of the room, leaving Hermione completely alone with the Jones family.

"What do you say to Miss Granger, darling?" prompted Barrin's mother.

"Thanks SO much for the party, Hermione!" The glee in his voice was undoubtedly genuine.

Hermione could do nothing but keep up the charade as she smiled her fake smile again. "You're welcome, Barrin. Now, you go enjoy your weekend and I'll see you Monday."

Barrin gave her a look that said "Oh, yes I will!" and accompanied his parents out of the classroom, leaving Hermione half-naked and alone with her thoughts.

And as she sat there, still recuperating from the onslaught that the afternoon had brought, an idea suddenly occurred to her. It was the kind of idea that seemed so obvious, and yet so risky, but it was still an idea that Hermione _knew _she had to try come Monday. For all she knew, it was the last ace she had up her sleeve.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

The following Monday began without any problems, which was strange in the case of this class. Then again, Hermione reasoned that because the day started with the kids and her participating in another round of rehearsal for the upcoming play, her class's ability to prank her again was quite limited, especially with there being other teachers present. The kids knew that if they tried pulling anything like what they've been doing the past few weeks in full view of any adults, they would lose the benefit of the doubt, and that was their greatest weapon in their "fight" against Hermione. Even though part of Hermione had hoped that the kids would feel overconfident and do something anyway, she still wasn't surprised when nothing happened. The only forms of humiliation inflicted upon her in these early hours were the ones scripted for her character in the play, and they were considerably milder than everything Hermione had endured at this school so far.

But the kids' lack of mischief this morning didn't matter.

While staying at The Burrow over the weekend, Hermione had made sure to have a little chat with Fred and George, a chat which concerned the idea she'd gotten after Barrin's birthday party on Friday. After enduring quite a bit of teasing and joking about her being a prank guinea pig, which she had honestly expected coming from the twins, Hermione had slid a piece of parchment across the living room table at them.

"Look, I need to get my hands on these items before Monday," she said pointedly. "And I figure you two are the ones most likely to help me out with that."

Fred scooped up the parchment, read it and gazed up at Hermione with amused eyes. "Well, well, Hermione. I never thought we'd be filling this type of order for _you_."

George peeked over his brother's shoulder and soon adopted a similar expression. "Blimey. I sure do like your thinking." He gave Hermione a mischievous wink.

"Are you absolutely _sure _about this, Hermione?" asked Harry from the entryway connecting to the kitchen, his arms folded across his chest. Ron, meanwhile, was seated at the kitchen table, pigging out on a few leftovers from dinner earlier that night which he'd managed to scrape together. It was as if he was in a world of his own, completely ignorant of the conversation going on around him.

Hermione glanced over at Harry, her face stoic. "These little brats aren't exactly leaving me much choice, are they? This may be my best, and only, option of retaking control of that classroom. And I'm _not _going to be labeled as the girl who couldn't handle a bunch of immature children."

"If these kids are so good that they've managed to pull this much over on you during the past couple of weeks, maybe we should look into getting them to intern at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes," chuckled George.

"Yeah," agreed Fred brightly. "Here we considered you nearly un-prankable, Hermione, and now you have permanent writing all over your bum!" He paused thoughtfully as Ron choked slightly on the mouthful of chicken he was gobbling down. His laughter clearly showed that specific comment had made it through his shroud of slothfulness. "Maybe we should be asking these kids for a few pointers."

Hermione shot a withering look his way.

"Or...not," he added on meekly, reverting his gaze to his bare feet.

"Can you get me the items or not?" snapped Hermione. "That's all I want to know!"

"Yes!" the twins replied simultaneously, much in the same fashion they would if their mother was giving them a particularly nasty dressing-down and any other answer but that simple word would get them turned into a flobberworm.

"Good," stated Hermione with satisfaction as she got to her feet. "Now, if you boys will excuse me, I've had a long day. I'm going to bed. By the way," she directed to Fred and George before exiting the living room, "I would appreciate it if you could get me those things by tomorrow. Good night."

Once Hermione was gone and out of earshot, Fred turned to George and said, "She really _does _remind me of Mum sometimes."

The observation made both twins shudder.

They had followed through on Hermione's request, however, because everything she'd asked of them was now in place back in the classroom. Hermione had made sure to arrive extra early that day in order to successfully set everything up, and the fact that the kids had gone straight to the auditorium that morning furthered Hermione's luck. Hopefully, it would continue long enough for her to accomplish what she wanted to do.

And as Hermione unlocked and opened the door upon her class returning from play practice, she quickly poked her head inside to check one last time to see if what she'd set up was indeed well-concealed.

"Alright, everyone," she said rather brightly as she opened the door all the way and flicked on the lights, "put your things away, take your seats and we'll get started for the day!"

"Sure thing, Miss Big-Butt!" Barrin replied with snark as he and the others all filed past their teacher. Hermione let the comment slide, though, because she knew what was coming, and they didn't. She did her best to hide her smile.

Within seconds, the kids had all plopped down into their chairs, chatting enthusiastically and paying Hermione no attention at all.

Her confident smile still fixed to her face, Hermione calmly strode to the head of the room and took a few moments to survey the scene with pleasure. She followed that up with another quick glance toward the ceiling.

Hermione cleared her throat loud enough to get the kids to stop talking and look at her. "Now, then, I thought we'd begin today by practicing your spelling. Specifically, spelling out names of different incantations."

Many of the kids let out dismissive snorts, as if they'd just been asked to tell Hermione what color the sky was. "Oh, please," Aggy said sarcastically. "Hermione, we _know _how to spell. We aren't thick!"

"Your stupid pranks would suggest otherwise," scoffed Hermione.

Aggy furrowed her brow as the comment clearly did the intended job of annoying her. "Fine," the little girl growled. "We'll do your dumb lesson, just to shut you up. You really _do _talk too much."

The other kids snickered.

Hermione allowed herself to grin very faintly. "Well, Aggy, why don't you come on up here and show me just how wrong I really am?"

"Gladly," spat Aggy. She was egged on by a few of her classmates, who whispered words of encouragement like, "Go show her!" and "Smack her butt after you do!"

Aggy smirked and nodded to her friends before she stood up from her chair...or, at least, _tried _to stand up.

Her little legs remained fixed to the seat, no matter how hard she attempted to lift them. All Aggy could do was lean her upper half forward while her lower half remained affixed to the chair. While she grunted in confusion with each effort, her classmates looked on with perplexed expressions.

Hermione, meanwhile, had let her grin take over her face as she leaned back in satisfaction against the blackboard, her arms crossed over her chest. Unlike the kids, she was looking on at the scene in entertainment. "Awww, what's the matter?" she asked mockingly, milking the situation for everything it was worth. "Forgotten how to stand, too?"

"Why...can't I...get...UP?" Aggy grunted in frustration.

"Maybe your little butt just likes that chair too much!" gloated Hermione.

Suddenly, Aggy's eyes widened as realization came crashing down upon her and her prank mind kicked in. She angled herself slightly to get a better look at the chair seat, and it was then that the prankster noticed that she had just become the victim. The feeling of something gooey and sticky had just started to seep through her pants, and she could also make out the dark stain spreading on the back of the fabric.

"GLUE?!" Aggy exclaimed in shock.

"Wiz-Glue, actually," Hermione stated matter-of-factly while examining her fingernails indifferently. "As you would undoubtedly know, it can be quite useful for revenge tactics."

She could see the cogs turning in Aggy's head. Aggy quickly whipped her head around to address her friends. "Quick! Check your seats!"

As one, the rest of the class tried to get up out of their chairs, but found their progress impeded by the layer of Wiz-Glue that Hermione had applied to each and every one of them. Many of the kids let out moans of distress and kicked their legs out furiously.

"Don't be so down," Hermione said with malicious glee as she backed away towards the closets and cubby holes. "As it so happens, I have something to cheer you up!"

The kids stopped struggling and looked up at their teacher with mixtures of horror and surprise.

"What are you on about?" Aggy spat nastily.

Hermione now had her back pressed firmly against the closet doors and had removed her wand from her pocket. "You guys like pudding, right?"

At the same time Hermione aimed her wand at the ceiling and flicked it in a quick curve, the kids cautiously aimed their eyes at what awaited above them.

But it was Hermione who had the better view of the multiple plastic containers of chocolate pudding dumping their contents onto the children as they floated in the air. The wave of pudding splattered loudly on top of the kids, chairs, tables and floor, but Hermione was spared from the dessert assault, just as she'd planned.

The reaction to her prank was delayed, but once the kids had adjusted to being coated in something messy, they all stared at her with open mouths. In that instant, Hermione could see exactly what was so funny about the sight of someone covered in an icky substance, and she burst out laughing.

Once she caught her breath, Hermione sighed and gazed out at her still shell-shocked students with a smug smile. "You all have something smudged in this area," she gestured at her full body.

"But...how...?" Lori asked in utter confusion.

"It looks like the Princes and Princesses of Pranks have been outdone by the newly-elected Queen!" Hermione was so in-the-moment, that she took a very stage-like bow and straightened back up. "How does it feel?"

The kids' shock had now given way to anger, but they were too hot-headed to form any words. Instead, they had to make do with incoherent sounds.

"Well," continued Hermione, "I think it only appropriate that you all spend the rest of the day like this, as penance for the countless days I've had to spend in the kinds of states you've left me in. So, that means we'll be skipping lunch and recess today. Or, at least, _you'll _be skipping lunch as I eat at my desk. If you lot get hungry, then there's plenty of pudding to go around!"

"You can't keep us like this ALL day!" exclaimed Sammy.

"No, I believe I can. Until your parents come, of course. In the meantime," Hermione waved her wand again, which cleared away the layer of pudding that was covering the tabletops. Replacing the food were pieces of paper and pencils, "today's _real _assignment is to write about how it's not funny to get pranked. And this WILL be a graded assignment, so I suggest you all do your best!"

Hermione then cleared away the pudding that was on the floor to make a pathway to her desk. She all but strutted there.

"Oh, by the way," she said before taking her seat, "I'm not normally one to make such crude jokes, but as long as we've switched positions for the day, I'll make just this one. You can mess around with a butt for so long before it eventually farts in your face."

And with that, Hermione plopped herself down into her chair and stared out at the sea of pudding-covered children. A few minutes passed, and none of them had picked up their pencils.

"I believe I gave you an assignment," Hermione said pointedly. "Either do it, or I'll add on sprinkles." She raised her wand threateningly. "And don't worry about pudding stains. The paper is enchanted to repel them."

The kids shot Hermione the dirtiest looks they could muster, dirtier even than their current appearances, and begrudgingly set to work on their little essays.

Hermione sat back, crossed her hands behind her head and folded her legs on top of one another as she leaned back in her seat. All the while, she was so caught up in the feeling of victory, that she paid no mind to the very real possibility of serious retribution that she had now incurred in the kids.

Even as they sat there writing, the kids had already begun to form their revenge.


End file.
